Mary
Taylor Simeti's Caponata (Sweet and Sour Eggplant)
Serves 6
- 2 medium-large
eggplants (about 2 and one-half pounds)
- Salt
- 1 and
one-half cups olive oil
- 1 medium
onion, sliced
- 6 ribs
celery, cut into 1-inch lengths and blanched for 1 minute in boiling
water
- 1 cup
pitted green olives
- One-half
cup capers
- 1 and
one-half cups plain tomato sauce (see below)
- One-half
cup white wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons
sugar
- 2 tablespoons
unsweetened cocoa (optional)
- 3/4
cup toasted almond slivers
Wash the
eggplants, cut off the stems, and cut the eggplants into 3/4-inch cubes.
Sprinkle with abundant salt and allow to drain for an hour. Rinse well,
dry, and fry in 1 cup olive oil until golden brown on all sides. Drain
on absorbent paper.
Saute the
onion in one-half cup olive oil until it begins to color. Add the blanched
celery and cook a minute longer, then add the olives, capers, tomato
sauce, vinegar, sugar, and the cocoa if like.
Simmer
for 5 minutes.
Stir in
the eggplant and simmer for 10 minutes. Correct the salt, then refrigerate
for 24 hours.
Serve the
caponata, sprinkled with the toasted almonds, either cold or at room
temperature.
Note:
The addition of cocoa, a very baroque, Spanish touch, renders the caponata
richer in color and in consistency. Since my own personal preferences
run to things simple, I usually leave it out.
The following
recipe was taken from POMP
AND SUSTENANCE: TWENTY-FIVE CENTURIES OF SICILIAN FOOD by Mary Taylor
Simeti (The Ecco Press, 1998, Reprinted by arrangement with Alfred A.
Knopf, Inc.)
StarChef
Mary Taylor Simeti was born and raised in New York City. In 1962 she
made her first trip to Sicily, where she now lives with her husband
and their two children. She is the author of ON
PERSEPHONE’S ISLAND: A SICILIAN JOURNAL (1986).
