Today's easy vegetable recipe, the classic Sicilian spread called "caponata". It's just eggplant, onion and tomato cooked til soft, deepened with red wine vinegar and capers.
Fresh & Summery. Low Carb. Weight Watchers Friendly & Freestyle Friendly. Naturally Gluten Free. Whole30 Friendly. Paleo. All that and not just vegan, Vegan Done Real.
Skip Straight to the Recipe
Stock Up on Plump, Purple Eggplant
Tis the season and there's no beating eggplant: it's cheap, healthful and cooks up in a million ways. Now meet Caponata, my new favorite way to cook eggplant, Caponata the spread, Caponata the "scoop", Caponata the salad – and most of all, the eggplant-tomato mix there's no getting enough of.
The first night, I usually serve it as is at room temperature: is it a vegetable salad? a side dish? a relish? Then it usually turns into a spread or scoop. Once I served it with flatbread for an afternoon outing: very tasty, especially with feta and olives on the side. We especially like it on Our Daily Bread, toasted (nearly always in a in a skillet) and spread first with Homemade Ricotta. Step aside, avocado toast. Caponata's here to stay!
The more I get into meal prep, the more I look for and turn to recipes that can be made ahead of time and served in different ways. Caponata fits those meal prep goals!
COMPLIMENTS!
"Tastes great!" ~ Anonymous "Looks and smells great." ~ Sunny "Caponata was delicious as advertised ..." ~ Bill
Caponata Made the List! Best Side (August 2008) – see Favorite Vegetable Recipes
Just updated. First published way back in 2008!
CAPONATA RECIPE
Hands-on time: 25 minutes
Time to table: 1 hour
Makes 5 cups (easily halved)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, diced
4 or more garlic cloves, chopped
1 anchovy, mashed (optional but wonderful, omit for vegan)
1 large globe eggplant (about 2 pounds/900g), tip and tail trimmed, skin on, diced small
2 large fresh tomatoes, diced small
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons capers
Salt & pepper to taste
Additional vinegar to taste
OPTIONAL
Kalamata olives (halved or quartered, added with the tomato)
Fresh basil (stir in after caponata is cooked and cooled)
Toasted pine nuts (traditionally sprinkled on top)
In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat the oil until shimmery on MEDIUM HIGH. Add the onion, garlic, anchovy and eggplant as they're prepped, stirring to coat with fat each time. Cook, stirring often, until eggplant has softened and become slightly brown, about 15 minutes. Add the tomato, vinegar and capers. Cover and let cook until eggplant and onion are very tender, about 15 minutes. Season to taste with salt, pepper and additional vinegar. Serve warm, at room temperature or refrigerate and serve cold.
ALANNA'S TIPS & KITCHEN NOTES SIZE MATTERS Consider how you might serve Caponata when dicing the onion and tomato and especially the eggplant. The smaller the dice, the easier Caponata will spread on bread or crackers as an appetizer, say. But if you're serving it as a side salad, larger pieces work fine! TIMING To avoid burning the onion and garlic, dice at least part of the eggplant first so that it's ready to go as soon as the onion's beginning to soften. HOW MUCH OIL? Soooo many recipes in general but especially recipes for Caponata use a lot of olive oil, a quarter cup, even a half cup. The more you use, the faster the vegetables will cook but more than that, additional oil does create a particular mouth-feel to Caponata. I'm happy to forgo that mouthfeel (and the accompanying calories) but for something richer, consider sautéeing the vegetables in more than my spartan single tablespoon of olive oil. GOOD SUMMER TOMATOES OR ... Like nearly everyone who cooks a lot, cooking something new often involves using up something that, well, needs using up. Once I substituted 2 cups of Tomato Gazpacho for the fresh tomatoes, it worked beautifully. Another time I substituted a cup of "Bruschetta" from Sam's Club (love that stuff, especially during the winter!) and a cup of mini tomatoes from our garden. Wonderful!
NUTRITION INFORMATION Per 1/4 cup: 25 Calories; 1g Tot Fat; 0g Sat Fat; 4g Carb; 2g Fiber; 35mg Sodium; 0mg Cholesterol; 1g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS POINTS WW Old Points 0 & PointsPlus 1 & SmartPoints 1 & Freestyle 0 & myWW green 0 & blue 0 & purple 0
TODAY'S VEGETABLE RECIPE INSPIRATION Adapted from Bon Appetit, August 2005 and Red, White, and Greens: The Italian Way with Vegetables by Faith Willinger
Still Hungry?
NEVER MISS A RECIPE!
For "home delivery" of new recipes from A Veggie Venture, sign up here.
Once you do, new recipes will be automatically delivered straight to your e-mail In Box.
MORE EASY SUMMER APPETIZER RECIPES
~ Beet Pesto ~
~ Green Chutney ~
~ Easy Easy Radish Spread ~
~ more appetizer recipes ~
~ more eggplant recipes ~
from A Veggie Venture
~ Creamy Ricotta with Tomato-Cucumber-Corn Salad ~
~ Cucumber Dip with Feta ~
~ Herbed Ricotta with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes ~
~ more appetizer recipes ~
from Kitchen Parade, my food column
Tomato & Zucchini Salad (< so many favorites this week, there's no picking just one!) Quick Broccoli Soup with Chive Oil For Instance Technique V (raw veggies with Italian dressing) Broccoli, Pepper & Celery Salad Corn Cayenne Tomato Ginger Jam (< another favorite!) Quick Microwave Sweet Corn Summer Tomatoes for Winter Greek Greens (Flash Cook to Eat Later) (< and another!) Mom’s Potato Salad (< and another!) “Lost Recipes” Classic Coleslaw with Boiled Dressing Dear Anonymous: THIS Is Why We Blog Ripe-Tomato Relish with Peaches & Pears (Sharon's Pickle) (< and still another!) Watermelon, Cucumber & Feta Salad Melon, Blueberry & Feta Salad with Honey Lime Vinaigrette Caponata – Sicilian Eggplant (< and yet another!) Raw Corn Chowder (< and one more!) Julia Child's Cucumber Salad Israeli Couscous Salad with Yellow Squash & Sun-Dried Tomatoes Summer's Best Corn Chowder (< no missing this one!) Garden Eggs "Benedict" Spiral Zucchini Noodle Salad with Homemade Catalina Dressing Warm Caprese Bites Turkish Cucumber-Tomato-Olive Chopped Salad with Sumac
A Veggie Venture is home of eggplant lover and "veggie evangelist" Alanna Kellogg and the
famous asparagus-to-zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables.
© Copyright Kitchen Parade 2008, 2014, 2018, 2019 (repub) & 2020
