Sicilian Caponata




Caponata is a Sicilian eggplant dish cooked with the star ingredient :eggplant" and peppers,tomato and seasoned with capers in a sour-sweet sauce.This is what i found out when i searched the web as soon as Alessio Fangano suggested this as the challenge for September 2010-The four velveteers.
When i announced very proudly that i would cook caponata for my husband(secretly praying that he would praise me for trying out some unknown dish), his reaction was "OH! I AM TRAVELLING- SO GOODLUCK WITH YOUR TRIALS". Well well! i guess he wanted to escape my innumerable kitchen trials and disasters, but guess what??????????HE MISSED THIS:-)

Wow !!! does it not look inviting????????? It was!!!!!!!


Now to the recipe

There are many variations of this vegetarian dish and with the limited supplies that i can get here, i tried out this and am very happy with the outcome.This surely is a keeper

Ingredients




Medium sized eggplant 2 (cut into even small cubes)

Green bell pepper 1

Red bell pepper 1

Yellow bell pepper 1

Onion 1

Tomato 1

Garlic 3 pods

Raisins 1/4 cup

Capers 2 tbsp

Fresh basil 2 tbsp

Pine nuts 1 tbsp

Brown sugar 1 tbsp

Olive oil 2 tbsp

Salt to taste



Preparation

Dice the eggplant into small even cubes. Add a little salt and keep it aside.After 10 minutes , dry them on a kitchen towel and shallow fry them and keep it aside.

Cut the onions finely and the bell peppers too. Scoop out the seeds from tomato and dice as well.

In a pan add 2 tbsp of olive oil , heat it over medium flame and saute the onions.When they turn translucent add the minced garlic , saute it further for a minute till a good flavor emanates.

Now add the cut peppers and saute till they change the colour and finely add the tomato with the brown sugar and salt

When the tomatoes are well cooked add the fried eggplants with the raisins and cook for another 5 minutes.

switch off the fire and add the capers and Basil

I have not used vinegar since the tomatoes already made it quite tangy

A very simple dish to cook and very tasty too.Tastes very good when served on warm crostini or bread.When you bite into it, there is an explosion of flavors of garlic, basil, pine and you can feel the different texture too. Lovely dish.Thank you Alessio for choosing such a beautiful vegetarian dish


Joining groups like THE 4 VELVETEERS definetely pushes you to try and cook many dishes which we wouldn't venture into otherwise.The 4 velveteers is the brain child of Aparna Alessio, Asha and Pamela who are passionate about different cuisines and food in general. Each month, we will attempt a new dish and share our experiences and the recipes we used. If you’re interested in joining the Velveteers, please feel free to drop by our Google group


Do check out what the other velveteers have created with eggplant

Aparna,s Eggplant and Fig caponata

Sarah's caponata-sicilian aubergine relish

ASHA'S Sicilian caponata over Z'atared Lavash Crackers

Madhuli's Yotam ottolenghi's caponata

Ken's Caponata jam n olive oil financier

Shall update as and when they post on their blogs

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