Ingredients

Serves 4 as a main, six or more as a side dish


Aubergines, cut into dice about 2cm square

2


Red peppers, cut into large dice

2


Red onion, peeled and  sliced

1 Large


Garlic Cloves, crushed and chopped

3


Celery stalks, washed and cut into chunks

2


Olive oil

4 tbsp.


Chopped tomatoes

400g tin


Tomato purée

2 tsp.


Red wine vinegar

3 tbsp.


Caster sugar

4 tsp.


Raisins (see note)

3 tbsp.


Dates chopped

3


Capers

2 tsp.


Pine kernels or almonds

2 tbsp.


Salt and pepper

To Taste


Quintessentially Sicilian, caponata is a wonderful sweet-and-sour vegetable stew, with enough assertiveness to make it gorgeous eaten on its own with a rustic loaf, spooned over bruschetta, served with pasta or rice, or as a side dish.

Caponata majors on generous chunks of aubergine, and I've added celery, peppers, tomatoes and onions as backup, all enlivened by tangy vinegar and capers and plump, sweet raisins. I understand that the addition of peppers in my version is likely to get me strung up in some Palermitano or Syracusan households but I'll bet that at some point a Sicilian cook with a glut of sweet red peppers from their smallholding of a garden has chopped them up and chucked them in.

Try scattering toasted pine nuts or almonds over the finished dish, and green olives, chillies or courgette make a delicious addition too. The only thing I must insist on is that caponata should be eaten warm rather than piping hot. It is so much better for it.





Method

Heat the olive oil in a large pan, add the onion and celery and sauté over a medium heat until they take on a golden colour, about 8 to 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and add the aubergine, peppers and garlic. Cook until the aubergine and peppers begin to soften, again about 10 minutes. Stir in the tomato purée, cook for two or three minutes more and then add the tinned tomatoes, the red wine vinegar and the sugar and stir well. Cook over a gentle heat for a further 10 minutes, stirring regularly. Finally add the capers, raisins, dates and the salt and pepper, cook for a couple of minutes and then stir in the pine nuts*. Take off the heat and leave until the caponata is warm rather than hot. Serve.

This is a wonderful dish on its own, but is great as a side dish. It can be used in much the same way as you would with ratatouille, or with pasta, rice, cous cous, quinoa, roasted meats and fowl, crispy skinned roast duck, and oily fish like sardines, tuna, salmon and the like. It can also be used as part of a full-on antipasti spread. If you like heat sprinkle in some dried chilli flakes at the start, as you add the aubergine and peppers.

David’s Note

*I sprinkled the nuts on top just before serving.

I soaked the raisins in red wine for a couple of days, to make them “plump” and juicy.

Made in advance (a few hours or evem better the day before) and then warmed

before serving.

I added a little orange juice to make a little more sauce.







   

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Sicilian Caponata