Vegetable Stew (Sicilian Caponata)
Fasting Recipes Italian Side Dishes Vegetables Vegetable Dishes
Ela, as you can see I haven't forgotten about caponata 😊 My oven is broken, the workers are removing tiles in the bathroom and driving me crazy with the mess and noise they make - it was time to make something good to eat to cheer ourselves up. Radu asked me not to forget to send you many thanks for this wonderful recipe, he loved it.
Ela advised me to use two pans in parallel to fry the vegetables, which would be much faster, but even with one pan it didn't seem to take that long. Do as you wish.
Also, I deviated a bit from the original recipe which called for 150ml vinegar with 1 tablespoon of sugar dissolved in it instead of the garlic sauce I added at the end. But I'm a bit picky and can't stand vinegar, so I have the good habit of "ruining" recipes. But I assure you no one suffered from this change. 😋
Now I'm waiting for the verdict from Ela - does it look like a real caponata or not?
Ingredients
700g eggplant
400g onion
700g potatoes
3-4 celery stalks (Pascal celery if possible, I couldn't find it so I used regular celery)
1 large bell pepper
400g tomato sauce (I used 200g canned tomatoes + 200g homemade tomato paste)
4 basil leaves
3 garlic cloves (or 150ml vinegar mixed with 1 tablespoon sugar)
salt, pepper
olive oil
Servings: 4 large portions if served alone, more if used as a side dish
How to prepare vegetable stew (sicilian caponata)
- Cut the eggplant into medium-sized cubes (with the skin on). Cut the potatoes into cubes. Cut the bell pepper into coarse pieces. Slice the celery stalks thinly (including some leaves). Cut the onion into thin slices.
- In a large pan, heat enough oil to cover the bottom well and sauté the onion with celery and a little salt until very soft and the onion is slightly golden. Pour everything into a strainer to drain the excess oil.
- Add more oil to the pan and fry the potatoes, stirring quite often, until they're cooked through and golden. This will take a bit longer. Put the onion from the strainer into a pot, and put the potatoes in the strainer to drain.
- Add plenty of oil to the pan again and fry the eggplant cubes until soft. Put the potatoes from the strainer over the onions in the pot, and put the eggplant in the strainer to drain.
- Add a little more oil to the pan and sauté the bell pepper until soft. Drain it of oil as well.
- Now all the sautéed vegetables will be in the pot.
- Meanwhile, I simmered the tomato sauce with a little salt, pepper, and chopped basil leaves. I let it reduce for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- I poured this tomato sauce into the pot over the vegetables, stirred gently, and let it simmer together on low heat for about 5 minutes to blend the flavors.
* if you're making the original version with vinegar, now is the time to add the vinegar with sugar, at the same time as the tomato sauce; don't add all the vinegar at once, add a little at a time and taste the sauce until it reaches your desired tartness - I crushed the garlic cloves, rubbed them with salt, then added a small cup of water to make a concentrated garlic sauce. I poured this into the pot and let it cook for 1 more minute.
* skip this step in the vinegar version - Adjust salt, pepper, and optionally vinegar to taste.
- I served it with toasted bread.
Sauté onion with celery
Fry the potatoes
Fry the eggplant
Vegetables in the pot with tomato sauce
Vegetable Stew (Sicilian Caponata)
