Now that the warm weather is coming and taking advantage of the fact that this recipe can still be made with seasonal vegetables, I bring you this simple recipe for “caponata siciliana”. A very appreciated “antipasti” at casa nostra. It combines all the flavor of the Mediterranean and can be served as an antipasti, or as an accompaniment to a meat dish, cold meats or pasta. All you need is good ingredients and a lot of love. Ecco la ricetta!
Ingredients (For 4 people):
- 1 large Eggplant
- 1 or 2 fresh celery sticks
- 1 onion
- Red bell pepper
- Yellow bell pepper
- Italian green bell pepper
- 400 gr of tomato (3 or 4 medium tomatoes)
- Olives (green and purple)
- Capers (3 tablespoons)
- Canned anchovies (optional, although if you like them they give a delicious touch)
- 30ml Vinegar
- Extra virgin olive oil if possible
- Salt
- Bread (to taste for slicing)
Preparation
Wash all the vegetables well. Dice the eggplant and put it with a spoonful of salt to drain for an hour on absorbent paper or in a colander. Dry with more paper and set aside. Chop the rest of the vegetables in equal pieces.
Heat 2 or 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a casserole or a wide frying pan and sauté the eggplant for about 6-7 minutes, remove and set aside in a large bowl or dish.
Add a little more oil (the eggplant absorbs a lot of oil) and sauté the celery, remove and put where the eggplants.
Now it is the turn of the peppers, if more oil is needed, add a spoonful again, salt them and sauté them for 6-7 minutes and then add the rest of the vegetables. Then we do the same operation with the chopped onion for about 5 minutes so that it does not burn.
Finally we sauté the diced tomatoes, cook for about 5 minutes over high heat and add the vinegar; here you can add to taste a little sugar to remove some acidity.
Reincorporate all the ingredients set aside in our dish and cook for about 8 minutes more. Here we also add the olives in pieces (we remove the stone) and the whole capers.
Add the chopped anchovies, leave for five minutes and remove from the heat to cool.
It can be refrigerated or consumed at room temperature once it has cooled down. E fatto! Buon appetito!
It is usually put on a few slices of bread, here everyone can choose their favorite bread.
