Caponata

4 servings Prep: 10 mins, Cooking: 30 mins
Rate this recipe
Delicious served with grilled fish. As a pasta sauce. On bruschetta as an appetiser. Or on a sandwich with strong Parmesan.

By Food24 January 26 2011
Recipe Disclaimer
Tap for method
Tap for method

Ingredients (14)

1/3 cup olive oil — extra virgin
2 red pepper — large, deseeded and quartered
1 garlic — cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
1 red onion — large, chopped
1 aubergine — large, cubed
2 Roma tomatoes — deseeded and chopped
4 olives — large green, pitted and chopped
2 capers
1/3 cup fresh basil — shredded
1/3 cup vinegar — red wine
2 brown sugar
5 g dark chocolate — 70% grated
pine nuts — toasted
salt and freshly ground black pepper — to taste
Tap for ingredients
Tap for ingredients

Method:

Roast the peppers. Heat the oven to 180 C. Rub the red
peppers with olive oil and place skin-side down on a baking tray. Sprinkle the
inside with a little olive oil the garlic slivers. Roast for 20 minutes or
until soft. Remove from oven, place with juices in a bowl and immediately cover
with plastic. Peel the skins when cool enough to handle. Reserve all juices, but discard
skin.

Sauté onions Sauté the onion in a dash of olive oil for 5 minutes. Take
care not to brown or fry onions. Sprinkle with sugar and add vinegar to the
pan. Let the mixture reduce over a low heat until it is slightly syrupy.
Remove from heat.

Fry aubergine Meanwhile, in another pan, add a
little olive oil and in batches fry the aubergine until golden and cooked
through. The secret is to use as little oil as possible when browning the
aubergine. Drain on kitchen paper if very oily.

Combine Return the aubergine to the same
pan, and add the tomatoes. Stir-fry for a minute or two. You just want the
tomato to be warmed, not cooked soft. Add the onion mixture, the capers and the
olives. When warm, stir in the grated chocolate so that it melts into the
juices. Season with salt and black pepper. Roughly
chop the peeled red pepper and add with all its juices to caponata. Drizzle
with a glug of olive oil.

Taste and check seasoning. The
caponata should be slightly sour, a bit sweet and full of rich flavour. I like
it quite sharp, but some people prefer to add a bit more sugar at this point.

Scatter
with chopped basil and pine nuts. Serve at once while warm with crusty bread as
a starter or as a main course with lentil burgers and flatbreads.

Reprinted with permission
of Forage.

To visit Forage’s blog, click here.

 



New recipes on Food24

Next Post

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Food24 Team Loves

Newsletter

Get weekly access to our best recipes, tips and tricks

Sign Up

Login to your account below

Fill the forms below to register

Subscribe to Newsletter

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Recipe Disclaimer

All recipe content is the responsibility of the party from whom such content originated. You agree that you use the content on Food24 at your own risk. Please read our editorial policy.