This spring I went to Sicily for the first time ever. It was after a demanding and wonderful month hosting 100+ women on our Female Foodie Tours in Rome and Florence. Since I brought my little family along for the duration of the tours, we decided to spend an extra couple of weeks in Italy and check out Sicily for the first time.
Sicily is its own world, and many Italians (namely the Sicilians themselves) consider it to be completely separate from “Italy”. As someone wholeheartedly obsessed with food, this is great news because it ultimately means more pasta dishes, more desserts, more iconic dishes, and lots of regional cuisine that you simply can’t find anywhere else.
Eggplant is one of those ingredients that Sicilians just love to cook with. And if you’ve been a dedicated reader of Female Foodie for any stretch of time, you may know that eggplant is one of the few foods I don’t love. I’ve eaten it on occasion, but it’s just not my favorite thing in the world.
Anytime we visit a new place (especially in Italy), I try my best to take a cooking class from a local. It’s not only one of the most fun, cultural things you can do in a new city, but I love that you have the takeaway skill of making a dish (or two or three!) back at home. After a quick message to my Airbnb host in Mondello, he set me up with Massimo & Giovanni and the rest is history. In the comfort of our family’s Airbnb, they showed me how to make seven separate authentic Sicilian dishes. I furiously took notes and (surprise surprise), one of my favorite dishes, caponata, was laced with my arch nemesis: eggplant.
I consider caponata my gateway drug to finally embracing eggplant. It has so many random ingredients that quite frankly I would never pair together, but once they’re all prepared in the right way it makes for one of the most flavorful, delicious vegetable side dishes I’ve ever had. Pro tip: make sure you have delicious bread on hand so you can use it to sop up any residual sauces or oil from the delicious caponata (in Italy they call this “la scarpetta”).
Authentic Sicilian Caponata
Ingredients
- 2 cups neutral oil, such as canola or peanut oil
- 1 medium or large eggplant, cut into large chunks
- 2 celery ribs, cut into large chunks
- 1 small red onion, cut into large chunks
- ½-¾ cup water
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 clove garlic, mashed
- 2 Tablespoons capers, strained
- 3 Tablespoons pine nuts
- 3 Tablespoons raisins
- ¼ cup green castelvetrano olives, pitted & thinly sliced
- 2 Tablespoons tomato paste
- basil for garnish
- kosher salt
Instructions
- In a large nonstick pan, bring the neutral oil to 350°F over medium-high heat (use an instant read thermometer, deep fry thermometer, or candy thermometer to check the temperature). When the oil has come to temperature, use tongs to place the eggplant in the pan, cooking for roughly 5-10 minutes, turning halfway through until golden brown on both sides. You may need to cook the eggplant in two batches. Place on a paper towel-lined plate, sprinkle with kosher salt, and set aside.
- Discard the oil, wipe out the pan with a paper towel, and add the celery, onion, and ½ cup of water to the pan. Cook over medium heat for approximately 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the celery and onion have been softened, adding the full ¾ cup of water if needed.
- Add the extra virgin olive oil, mashed garlic clove, capers, pine nuts, raisins, and olives and cook on medium-low for 10-15 minutes, or until the vegetables have slightly softened. Add the tomato paste and continue to simmer until all of the vegetables are soft, adding more water (a tablespoon or two at a time) if the celery is still crunchy.
- Remove the smashed garlic clove from the mixture, and gently toss in the prepared eggplant. Taste and add additional kosher salt if needed. Garnish with basil and serve warm or at room temperature.
Notes
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