Caponata

Submitted by ngibsonn

"Caponata is a great farmer's market recipe. It uses bright red bell peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes. It's perfect to make on a weekend afternoon. And it will last all week. Caponata is a thick vegetable relish. Serve it at room temperature with grilled bread, toast or crackers. You can dress it up by crumbling some feta or goat cheese over it. You can also use it to make a sandwich: bread, caponata, crumbled goat cheese, alfalfa sprouts."

 

• Ready In: 4hrs 20mins
• Ingredients: 13
• Serves: 8

ingredients

• 1 medium onion, diced
• celery, diced,half the onion amount
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 3 -4 cloves garlic
• 4 anchovies
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 red bell pepper, diced into 1/2 inch cubes
• 1 medium eggplant, diced into 1/2 inch cubes (approx. 1-1/4 pounds)
• 3 cups peeled and diced tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 3 tablespoons capers, drained
• 1⁄2 cup chopped black olives

directions

1. Briskly sauté the onions and celery in the olive oil until the onions are brown around the edges.
2. Meanwhile, mince the garlic, anchovies, salt and pepper together.
3. Add to the onions, turn the heat way down and let it stew while dicing the bell pepper and eggplant.
4. Add the diced pepper and eggplant.
5. Cook over moderate heat until the eggplant is completely cooked, almost falling apart.
6. (Eggplant is insatiable when it comes to oil. Don't feed it. If the eggplant sticks too much, toss in a spoonful of water to loosen it.) Add the tomatoes and simmer, partially covered, until the tomatoes are cooked — 10 to 15 minutes.
7. Stir in the vinegar, capers, and olives.
8. Simmer uncovered for a few minutes (until it's no longer watery) then fine-tune the seasoning with salt and pepper.
9. Put in a bowl and let it cool uncovered.
10. When it's at room temperature, serve or refrigerate.

Reviews

[KLHquilts]

This was wonderful. For once I made a recipe exactly as is, and I'm very glad I did. The anchovies are an absolute must, aren't they? And so are the capers. The only difference for us was that I used Kalamatas instead of plain-wrap black olives, and I'm glad I did. I've been making industrial-sized batches of ratatouille so I could deal with the CSA allotments this year, but I'm switching to caponata -- this was one of the most delicious vegetable dishes I've ever eaten.

 

[BettyBoop330]

I love caponata - used this as a base. Doubled the recipe (lots of veggies from the garden), added 3 zucchinis, in large dice. Added 3/4 cup golden raisins and a heaping tablespoon of honey, as we love the sweet & sour flavor. It freezes well, so if there's too much, I freeze half of it. Before serving I add some toasted pine nuts.

 

[VegSocialWorker]

Fantastic! Made it just as the recipe stated. I was tempted to leave the anchovies out, just 'cause I'm not crazy about them, but glad I didn't. They add a very nice but subtle flavor and are not overpowering at all. This makes a ton, which is great. I am freezing half and hopefully it will work out well. We have been eating it on crackers and in sandwiches. Would probably be tasty on pasta as well. Thanks for this recipe, we'll make again for sure.

 

[Latchy]

This is one of my favourite recipes, has all the ingredients I love and this was really good, especially as it had the anchovies in it. Unfortunately I didn't have any capers so missed out on them this time. But it is a recipe that I will make time and time again. Thanks ngibsonn.