How to make eggplant Caponata

Ingredients

• Eggplant 1 kg
• Celery stalks 600 g
• Onions 250 g
• Pitted black olives in brine 200 g
• Capers 50 g
• Pine nuts 60 g
• Tomatoes for sauce 500 g
• Sugar 50 g
• White wine vinegar 50 g
• Basil 0.5 g
• Extra virgin olive oil 25 g, of which the celery 10 g and 15 g for onions
• Rock salt 30 g
• Seed oil to fry the aubergines 300 g

Preparation

To prepare the caponata begin by washing the eggplants and depriving them of the two ends. Then cut into cubes of about 1.5 cm per side, cutting first vertically and then horizontally. On a tray arranged a colander and pour the eggplant cubes then sprinkle with salt and lay on the surface of a weight, such as for example of ceramic balls placed in a vessel, and left so for an hour. This is necessary to drain the water vegetation of eggplant and losing a little ‘bitter taste.

Meanwhile, after having washed the stalks of celery, transfer them on a cutting board and cut into pieces about 1 centimeter then pour into a pot with boiling salted water, and after 3 – 4 minutes of cooking, drain and leave to dry on a clean cloth .

Peel the onions and then slice in fine all slices of equal thickness: in this way will bake evenly. Let them dry on low heat in a large skillet along with 15 grams of extra virgin olive oil.

After about ten minutes the onions have softened and you can add the capers, pitted black olives and pine nuts. Let it sizzle over high heat for about ten minutes.

Meanwhile wash the tomatoes and cut into cubes of about 1 cm, add them to the pan with the onions and the remaining ingredients and cook for another twenty minutes on low heat.

In another pan, let heat 10 grams of celery extra virgin olive oil and pour the diced blanched leaving them fry for a few minutes; keep aside.

After about an hour the eggplant will have lost part of their bitter water, so bring the colander under water and briefly rinse the cubes so that they lose part of the salt and transfer them on a tray covered with a clean cloth and dried for good the cubes of eggplant. Fry in a pan with plenty of boiling oil and after a few minutes of cooking drain and pour into the baking pan where you cooked initially onions and other ingredients.

Also add the blanched celery bits in the pan and stir briefly, then add the sugar and then the white wine vinegar. Let soften the intense smell of vinegar, then turn off the heat and add a few leaves of basil chopped by hand. Mix everything letting it cool for good. Your caponata is ready, you just have to taste it!