Sicilian-Style Eggplant Caponata Recipe

This Sicilian-style eggplant caponata recipe makes a delightful appetizer or side dish and is low in fat.  It’s especially tasty when served over crostini (toasted rustic bread) crackers, crusty bread, or by itself.

Eggplant is known in Europe as aubergine and adds sweetness to this recipe. Along with olives, capers, and other vegetables, it makes a flavorful and colorful dish. Serve it at room temperature.

Enjoy this recipe!

Sicilian Eggplant Caponata

Rebecca Forstadt Olkowski

A colorful and nutritious appetizer that you can spread on crusty bread.

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Course Side Dish

Ingredients

  

• 1 – 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 eggplant peeled and cut into small cubes
• 1 cup tomatoes fresh ripe
• 1 red bell pepper seeds removed – coarsely chopped
• 1 green bell pepper seeds removed -coarsely chopped
• 1 onion coarsely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 15 black olives imported – pitted and chopped
• 1/4 cup capers drained
• 1/2 tsp red crushed pepper
• 1/4 cup Italian parsley fresh chopped
• 2 Tbsp basil or marjoram fresh chopped
• 1 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar

Instructions

 

• In a large frying pan over medium heat, warm the olive oil and saute the eggplant for about 5 minutes.
• Add the tomatoes, red peppers, green peppers, onion, and garlic. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes stirring occasionally.
• Add the olives, capers, parsley, red crushed pepper, basil, and vinegar.
• Turn the mixture into a large bowl. Cover and let it set for 2 hours before serving or refrigerate overnight. NOTE: It takes a little while for the flavors to blend for the best taste so don’t serve it immediately.

The history of Eggplant Caponata

The Moors in Spain created Eggplant Caponata during the Middle Ages.

Its name first appeared in an etymological text printed in Messina, Italy in 1759, most likely brought over with Muslin battalions and may have come from an ancient recipe from pre-Islamic Persia. The word “caponata” is defined as a “dish made up of various things.”

“Capponata,” with 2 p’s, was a sauce used by the Monsu of Palermo Sicily to preserve pheasants, hares, and other game meat. It became “caponata” because the poor began drowning cubes of fried aubergines in an old sauce recipe called “agrodolce” which is sweet and sour and mixed with capers, green olives, and other ingredients.

Caponata was often made in Palermo taverns to flavor tasteless biscuits with the vegetable mixture.

There is no “one way” of making Caponata in Sicily and each family has its version of the recipe. At least 37 caponata recipes have been documented in history with many more interpretations today.

It is considered to be a summer delicacy because of the vegetable’s seasonal nature.

What’s your favorite way to eat eggplant?  Please leave a comment below.