Tags
appetizer, bruschetta, Caponata, Eggplant, eggplant sauce, Olive, recipe, recipe box, Sicilian cuisine, summer recipe
Apparently it’s giant vegetable week. No jokes this time around though, these giant eggplants aren’t pinned together with straight pins, they’re legit, ginormous purple wonders.
Caponata is a Sicilian dish usually made with eggplant, olives, and capers in a sweet and sour sauce. I mixed the veggies up a bit and left out the capers 1. because I didn’t have any and 2. because I don’t like them anyway but it still turned out seriously delicious. 
Preparation:
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with foil and toss 1 inch eggplant chunks with 2 Tbls. of the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and roast for about 25 minutes, turning occasionally.
- Heat the other 2 Tbls. of oil in a skillet and add chopped onion, zucchini, and olives. Once they begin to get tender, throw in the chopped tomato. Season with salt and pepper.
- Add 1/2 cup water to the skillet, the 2 Tbls. of vinegar, and the sugar. Cover and simmer until the liquid is reduced by half (it took about 6 or so minutes for me).
- Add the roasted eggplant pieces to the skillet and coat with the sauce mixture.
- Top toasted bread slices with the caponata for an appetizer, or mix in with pasta or meat as a sauce for an entree.
The original recipe called for green olives instead of black, celery instead of zucchini (you could use green bell pepper as a substitute too) and capers (which I left out completely) so you can pretty much tweak this recipe whichever way your vegetable cravings swing. Also, a recipe that can be both an appetizer or an entree!? I’m all about that kind of multi-tasking. I only used half of my roided-out eggplant but one normal grocery store eggplant would be perfect.
– ❤ A.
