At the markets last Friday, Jimmy the Tomato Man made me buy a box of yellow capsicums. The conversation went like this..
“How much are the capsicums, Jimmy?”
“$14 a box, but for you, $10..”
“Hmmm….”
“No, you’re such a lovely customer, for you, $8. Now you have to buy it, or I’ll be insulted, no-one else gets such a good price from me..” (as he puts the box in our trolley and I meekly hand over the money).
After making a roasted pepper hot sauce, I wanted to use the remaining capsicums to make caponatina – a dish our elderly Italian neighbour used to prepare. It’s basically a combination of chopped vegetables – in this case, capsicums, eggplants, tomatoes and onions – pan-fried in olive oil and seasoned with garlic, chillies and anchovies. I grilled (broiled) the fingers of eggplant before adding them to the pan, to reduce their sponginess and the amount of oil they absorbed. The caponatina was then finished with a generous amount of white wine vinegar, a splash of Moo’s aged balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.
Caponatina is usually served cold as an antipasto dish, and giving it time to rest in the fridge allows the flavours to meld. Traditional recipes have far more liquid, including tomato sauce and lots of oil, but this lighter version is a nice accompaniment to hot and cold meats – we had ours with sausages!
one of my favourites…yum!
I like the new site header too…apart from the chocolate frogs that call out “eat me” each time I log into your site….
This was one of the dishes that the chef from Otto taught at the cooking school K and I went to years ago at the Fish Markets. His secret ingredient was dark chocolate – I kid you not! To be honest, I couldn’t taste it….
Spice, glad you like the banner, since it was your headsup on how to do the photo montages that led to it.. :)
Tracey, dark chocolate? That is interesting…maybe I’ll give it a go next time…
Hi Celia! This looks delicious, can you send me the recipe?
Luce! It’s been ages, how’ve you been?
It’s a really easy dish to make, love. Cut up all the veges into strips. Grill the eggplant in the oven a little bit to reduce the amount of oil it absorbs. Then fry it all together in a little olive oil, anchovy fillets, garlic and chilli. Finish by throwing in some vinegar. It’s completely flexible – it’ll adapt to whatever you have on hand!
Hope to catch up soon! Celia