Name: Caponata with peppers
Prep time: 2 min
Yield: 6-8 people
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 6 Eggplants (large); to taste Salt; 4 Bell peppers (large); 2 Onions (medium); 2 stalks Celery; 5 oz Pitted olives; 15 to taste Capers; 1 oz Pine nuts (optional); to taste Basil; 2 tbsp Tomato paste; as needed Vegetable oil (for frying); 2 tbsp Sugar (scant); 6 2/3 tbsp White wine vinegar

Sicilian caponata original recipe with peppers, a bit different from the famous Sicilian eggplant caponata, but just as tasty. The Catania-style caponata with peppers and eggplant is the version prepared in Catania, where potatoes are often and mistakenly added.
Grandma’s caponata is an ancient, humble dish of the traditional Sicilian cuisine and depending on the provinces where you taste it you will encounter variants that slightly differ from each other. It is a dish made with eggplants and peppers that we could not call light, since the components are all fried and then enriched with a sweet-and-sour sauce that gives the vegetable mix a really rich and intense flavor.
By tradition the origin of the caponata is linked to the “capone”, the name used in Sicily for the amberjack, a white fish with rather dry flesh that was served on aristocratic tables seasoned in sweet-and-sour. It is said that common people, not having fish available, replaced it with the prolific and somewhat bitter eggplant. In truth there are no certain facts about the dish’s origins, only legends.
As I mentioned before, in Sicily there are more than thirty caponata variants and the differences between them are often subtle; the first that immediately stands out is whether peppers are used or not — in Catania they are added, in Palermo absolutely not. Another difference is the use of fresh tomatoes, canned peeled tomatoes, or double-concentrated tomato paste; I prefer the latter because it gives color, flavor and keeps everything balanced.
You will read the ingredients and think there are many of them; know that these vegetables reduce to less than a quarter of their original weight when cooked, so do the math and you’ll see you’ll end up with a dish for 6-8 people — and if we’re honest it’s so good that two people with some bread might finish it by themselves in ten minutes!!
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Difficulty: Very easy
Cost: Very inexpensive
Preparation time: 2 Minutes
Portions: 6-8 people
Cuisine: Italian

Ingredients

6 Eggplants (large)
to taste Salt
4 Bell peppers (large)
2 Onions (medium)
2 stalks Celery
5 oz Pitted olives
15 to taste Capers
1 oz Pine nuts (optional)
to taste Basil
2 tbsp Tomato paste
as needed Vegetable oil (for frying)
2 tbsp Sugar (scant)
6 2/3 tbsp White wine vinegar

Tools

Pots

Preparation of the caponata with peppers and eggplant

Wash the eggplants, peel them and cut them into chunks, then place them in a colander,
sprinkle with a handful of salt and let rest for 30 minutes; after this time you will see a dark liquid at the bottom, which means they have released moisture. Rinse them thoroughly and pat them dry with a cloth to remove excess water.
When they have dried, fry them in plenty of vegetable oil — I use sunflower oil because I find it has a less overpowering smell.
When the eggplants are fried and have reduced considerably in volume, use a slotted spoon to collect them and place them in a colander to drain.
While the eggplants fry, chop the celery and blanch it for a few minutes in water with a little vinegar; it should remain crisp.
Also while the eggplants cook, clean the peppers, remove the membranes, cut them into chunks and set them aside to drain.
Once you have removed the eggplants, you can fry the peppers in the same oil; when you see they are cooked and flavorful, remove them and set them aside to drain as well.
Remove most of the oil from the pan and fry the onions cut into small cubes, add the celery, the olives (I forgot them and added them later), the desalinated capers if you like them, and also the pine nuts if you wish.
Let everything meld and add the tomato paste, then combine the eggplants, the peppers, the vinegar and the sugar; adjust salt if necessary (remember the eggplants were already salted) and taste to see if you need more sugar or more vinegar — this goes according to personal preference.
Stir and let it flavor for a few more minutes so that some of the vinegar evaporates; add the basil and turn off the heat.
Transfer everything to a baking tray to remove excess oil: gather all the caponata on one side of the tray and position it so that it slopes a bit to one side — for example, prop it up on something — the oil will collect at the lowest point and you can remove it easily. This step isn’t strictly necessary, but I recommend it; I don’t like to see dishes swimming in oil…
The caponata is ready; I suggest letting it rest for a few hours before serving as the flavor will improve a lot, and it will be very good served cold.
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