Sicilian caponata is a cold appetizer prepared in a sweet and sour style, and today I want to prepare it with you in a simple and quick way with one of my favorite recipes, with mixed vegetables, not just eggplants, but also adding zucchini, potatoes, peppers, and also onion, celery, olives, pine nuts, capers, raisins, tomatoes or alternatively tomato sauce so we do it even quicker. I’ll give you the list of ingredients because, in reality, there are several types of Sicilian caponatas, indeed it is a recipe that varies greatly from province to province, but what unites them is the deliciousness of the dish, however it is prepared, with more or fewer vegetables, or with just eggplants, olives, tomatoes, and almonds as in some localities. I make a version I tasted in Catania, while passing through on my way back from Syracuse last April, but I don’t remember if it was the Catanese, Trapanese, or Palermitan version, trying to understand more is also complicated, so I go by feeling, based on what I tasted. It was a caponata prepared with mixed vegetables, with pine nuts, raisins, and capers, and that’s how I wanted to remake it at home, with the vegetables fried, all separately, and put together only at the end, in the sweet and sour tomato sauce with vinegar and very little sugar. So let’s see how to prepare this delight, which is indeed a typically summer dish due to the vegetables it contains, but since these vegetables are available all year round, I recommend preparing it all year round, even when we have special occasions, it can be prepared in advance and keeps well for a few days in the fridge, also excellent on a bruschetta. Sicilians, please don’t be offended, I know it probably doesn’t correspond exactly to any of your versions, but in the end, I followed, as always, my instinct and my desire to enjoy a good and delicious caponata, and I hope you will like it too if you have the desire to try it.
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Very Cheap
- Rest time: 1 Hour
- Preparation time: 40 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Summer, Fall
Ingredients for Sicilian Caponata
- 2 large black eggplants
- 2 peppers (red and yellow)
- 2 zucchini
- 2 potatoes (optional)
- 2 stalks of celery
- 1 onion
- 0.5 oz pine nuts
- 1 tablespoon raisins
- a few salted capers
- to taste Olives leccino type (or similar)
- to taste sunflower oil
- to taste olive oil
- to taste white vinegar
- 1 clove garlic
- 7 oz tomato sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- to taste salt
Tools to Prepare Sicilian Caponata
- 1 Knife
- 1 Cutting Board
- 1 Pan
- 1 Fryer
- 1 Potato Peeler
Steps to Prepare Sicilian Caponata
Peel a couple of potatoes, wash, and dry them, and cut into chunks. Fry in plenty of hot oil, in a pan or fryer as I did, which is much faster. If you want, you can also omit the potatoes.
Meanwhile, prepare the eggplants; I peeled them because my husband can’t stand the skin of fried eggplants, adjust to personal taste, if so peel them as I did with a potato peeler and then cut into cubes quickly on a cutting board.
When the potatoes are cooked and golden, dry them on paper towels and cook the eggplants in the same oil.
While the eggplants are cooking, also cut the zucchini into cubes.
When the eggplants are also golden, dry them on paper, and fry the zucchini until golden, and in the meantime also prepare the peppers by removing the seeds.
Dry the golden zucchini on paper towels, and cook the peppers in the same oil. Meanwhile, slice the celery into rings and the onion into slices.
Proceed to fry everything, also the onion and celery, and dry on paper.
In a pan, put a clove of garlic, olive oil, and the tomato sauce, add a pinch of salt, and let it go for 5-10 minutes on low heat.
Then add all the vegetables, olives, pine nuts, raisins, and capers rinsed under water. Add also torn basil and let it simmer for a few minutes, then at the end add vinegar and sugar, let it cook for a few more minutes on high heat, and then we are ready.
Let it cool before enjoying our Sicilian caponata and appreciating its full goodness. Don’t be scared by the frying, I swear it’s still digestible and not heavy, but if you really want to avoid frying, you can cook all the vegetables in the oven with a little oil and only at the end assemble everything in the pan, or you can also cook them in the pan with a little olive oil, but from time to time a good fry I assure you is also healthy, as doctors also affirm.
