Food

Sicily’s Great Eggplant-Tomato Stew

I ran into a friend yesterday, who tells me that he should be
harvesting eggplants from his garden any day now. Of course, this got
me thinking about Caponata, the famous Sicilian eggplant and tomato
stew.

This is a terrific ‘contorno’, vegetable course, and also a great
topping for ‘bruschetta’, Tuscany’s grilled bread. Of course it’s
one of the quintessential Italian antipasti too. And when you can
walk into your own garden and harvest the vegetables to put it
together, Caponata becomes all the more magical.

Italians have a particular fondness for ‘le primizie’, the smallest
of the first crop of vegetables. So if you have access to a
garden, either your own or a friend’s or if you can get to a farm
stand,now is the time for you to be thinking about caponata too.

My Grandmother’s Caponata

When the garden was in full swing during the summer, Noonie (my
grandmother) would harvest well, more accurately, she would
direct Pop (my grandfather) to harvest some eggplant, tomatoes, and
peppers for this delicious antipasto that she referred to
as ‘Caponatina. My recollections fail as to how she served it, but
I’m betting that it was over a piece of Italian bread that Pop had
fried in olive oil.

Nowadays, I serve it over bruschetta made from some good Tuscan bread
that I’m happy to report seems to be turning up more and
more frequently at supermarket bakeries.

Ingredients:

4 Tbs. Olive oil
2 Cloves garlic, peeled, and thinly sliced
1 Medium onion, peeled, and chopped
1 Medium eggplant (approximately 1 1/4 Lb.) cut into 1 inch cubes
2 Medium bell peppers
1/4 Lb. Green olives, pits removed
1 Tbs. Capers
1 Cup Italian plum tomatoes, roughly chopped
1/4 Cup sugar
1/4 Cup red wine vinegar
1/2 Cup raisins
2 Tbs. Fresh mint, chopped
1/4 tsp. Red pepper flakes

Preparation:

Heat the olive oil in a saut pan over medium-high heat, then add
the garlic. Saut until the garlic just begins to give off its
aroma perhaps a minute or two. Add the onion and saute for about five
minutes, until it becomes translucent.

Add the eggplant and saute for about five minutes or until it
begins to soften, but still has plenty of texture. Add the peppers,
olives, and capers and saute until the peppers become tender. Add the
tomatoes and continue cooking to incorporate the tomatoes with the
other ingredients and to begin to form a sauce.