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Caponata Siciliana - Sicilian Sweet And Sour Vegetables
Wine

Caponata Siciliana – Sicilian Sweet And Sour Vegetables

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Serves 2

Ingredients

1 aubergine
1 white or brown onion
1 stick of celery
1 red pepper
2 medium vine tomatoes
1 tbsp of tomato paste
15 pitted green olives
50g pine nuts
3 tbsp of red wine vinegar
1 ½ tbsp of caster sugar
10g of fresh basil
Extra virgin olive oil
Fine sea salt
Sourdough bread, to serve

Method

In a dry frying pan over a medium heat, toast the pine nuts for 2–3 minutes, stirring frequently until lightly golden. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Cut the aubergine into roughly 2 cm cubes. Roughly dice the onion. Thinly slice the celery stick and dice the red pepper. Roughly chop the tomatoes and slice the olives in half.

Heat a generous splash of extra virgin olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the aubergine cubes, the onion and the diced pepper with a pinch of fine sea salt and cook for about 8–10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden and soft. Add a little more oil if needed.

Add the chopped celery and olives, then the chopped tomatoes too and cook for another 5 minutes, allowing them to break down and form a light sauce.
In a small bowl, mix together the tomato paste, sugar, and red wine vinegar. Stir this mixture into the pan towards the end of the cooking and simmer for 2–3 minutes until the sauce lightly coats the vegetables.

Remove the pan from the heat, roughly tear the basil leaves and stir them in along with the toasted pine nuts. Taste and adjust the seasoning with fine sea salt if needed.

Spoon the caponata onto a serving dish and drizzle lightly with extra virgin olive oil. Serve warm or at room temperature with toasted slices of sourdough bread.

46 Comments

  1. @Cazzo72

    Extremely disappointing to see an Italian using fillipo berio olive oil!…especially as Italy has some many far better quality brands!!

  2. @AgnOudistic

    How does one serve it though? I would love to pair it with a protein. What would you do, Francesco?

  3. @internationaldonuts

    Caponata….one of the best buddy. Superb on some freshly toasted sour bread. I add a slight drizzle of balsamic glaze with it (although I’m sure it would be frowned upon)

  10. @MrPipe1324

    I love how people online insist that heating virgin olive oil is super bad for health and degrades into harmful substances, but Italians simply do NOT give an f

  12. @CaptainRompie

    I have made caponnata before and typically serve it with creamy mashed potatoes and parmesan. It looks great on bread aswell. How else would you serve it? Any particular pasta you could recommend? Or another side?

  21. @glovesandtea

    do you have a n ingredient suggestion for substituting the pine nuts? i'm super duper allergic to them >_<

  29. @charlesjoyal8867

    Im from Quebec, i went to Sicily on a high school trip and it was one of the best experiences ive ever had! Great food, great people and amazing ruins! Boy was it hot though

  32. @marthabdartha67

    We roast the eggplant, use garlic and onion as a base, use the same vegetables, but we add white wine, red wine vinegar, capers (for the saltiness) white rasins, and in place of sugar we drizzle honey on the top with fresh mint and chili flakes for spice

  37. @carm954

    I’m actually glad you didn’t fry the 🍆. It brings in more of that beautiful olive oil flavor rather than whatever a deep fried.🍆 would bring to the dish and it sometimes soggy. So I prefer this method, which is the one we’ve been using for years. Yum! Everyone makes it a little different, but I like your version a lot!

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