Caponata

Caponata alla Fuscà 

Caponata is a southern Italian eggplant side dish. The base typically includes eggplant, celery, onion, olives, tomatoes, olive oil, of course, and red wine vinegar and sugar which gives it its signature agrodolce (sweet and sour) flavor. Other ingredients can include pine nuts, sweet peppers and raisins. The Sicilians sometimes throw in tuna. It is always served at room temperature. 

It is perfect as part of an antipasti plate or side dish along side chicken or fish or on grilled country bread as bruschetta or on polenta or with pasta. Nice stuff! I think you will like it. The amounts in the recipe below are approximations. You might need to make it a few times to get the amount of ingredients and the timing right to suite your own taste. Like a lot of Italian food, this gets better over the next few days, so you can make it ahead of time and keep it in the refrigerator. Don’t re-heat it though, just let it come to room temperature by itself.

Ingredients - 

   

2 large or 3 medium size eggplants  

1/2 - 3/4 cup of olive oil
2 cups of celery, sliced thin on a bias
3/4 cup of onions, chopped
2 cups of drained canned Italian plum or chopped fresh tomatoes
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
9 - 11 large green olives, pitted and cut in half - use the good ones: Cerignola or Castelvetrano. In a pinch Kalamata olive will be OK but NOT grocery store green olives stuffed with a pimento.

2 tablespoons of capers – rinsed
1/2 cup of red wine vinegar, mixed with 2 tablespoons of sugar

Handful of golden raisins
2 tablespoons of pine nuts – toasted
Pinch + Hot red pepper flakes (optional)

Basil – nice handful torn into pieces

salt and ground pepper to taste

Cut eggplant into 1 inch cubes. Sprinkle cubes of eggplant with salt and set them in a colander in the sink to drain. After 30 minutes, rinse them and pat dry with paper towels and set them aside.
Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in heavy non-stick skillet, sauté the eggplant in it, stirring and turning for about 8-10 minutes until they are lightly browned but not mushy. You might have to add more olive oil. With a slotted spoon transfer the eggplant to a bowl.

  

Using the same skillet, add about 1/4 cup oil to the oil that’s left in the skillet and add the celery and onions. Cook over moderate heat, stirring frequently for about 10 minutes until celery and onions are soft and lightly colored. 

Add tomato paste and cook, stirring, until caramelized and almost evaporated, 1–2 minutes. Add crushed tomatoes or chopped fresh tomatoes and continue cooking for 10 minutes. 

 

Stir in the olives, vinegar & sugar, raisins, capers and cook, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.

 

Take off heat and add back the eggplant, add the pine nuts and basil. 

 

Stir it all together. Serve at room temperature.

 

Polpette di Melanzane - Eggplant "Meatballs"

Many people go through their whole life without ever tasting or wanting to taste a dish made with eggplant. Some because they just never had eggplant growing up, some because they simply are not curious enough eaters, some because they had it made improperly the first time, didn't like how it tasted or how it looked, and never went back. But if you like eggplant, you will love these.    

They aren't really "meatballs" because they have no meat in them, they just look like meatballs and can be used in place of them in pasta dishes. Polpette di melanzane or purpette di milangiane in Calabrian dialect means little balls of eggplant. You could also call them eggplant fritters. Crunchy on the outside, soft inside with a savory aroma and taste. Delicious alone or served with a simple marinara sauce for dipping. They are perfect as part of an antipasti plate, part of a tapas meal or with pasta and tomato sauce. Leftovers are good for a late night snack or even breakfast the next day. No kidding!

One large eggplant should make about 15 - 20 balls depending on how you roll them.

Ingredients

1 large eggplant

1/3 cup pecorino cheese plus more for serving - preferably Locatelli brand

1/2 cup unseasoned coarse breadcrumbs - home made is best from ciabatta or similar bread pulsed in a food processor - don't use panko or the fine Progresso type in a canister.

1 egg yolk

3 cloves of garlic minced

Nice handful of fresh basil leaves chopped

Olive oil to drizzle on cut eggplant and for frying
50/50 Olive oil/Canola oil for frying

Salt and Pepper

Marinara sauce

Preheat oven to 350. Cut the eggplant in half and score the top. Place on a cookie sheet. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Roast for half an hour. 

The eggplant will be soft and easy to scoop out of the skin. Put the eggplant meat on a cutting board and chop finely. Add a pinch of salt. 

Scrape the chopped eggplant into a sieve over a bowl and let drain for half an hour. You want it to have some moisture so it holds together with the dry ingredients but not too wet.   

the chopped eggplant, pecorino cheese, basil, garlic, egg yolk, bread crumbs, salt and pepper. Mix together and roll into balls - a little smaller than golf balls.

Fry in olive oil or a 50/50 olive oil and canola oil blend. 

Polpette done and ready to eat. Crunchy on the outside and soft inside. The aroma of basil, garlic and pecorino coming off them is awesome!  

Eggplant Preserved in Olive Oil - Melanzane Sott'Olio

This time of year production in vegetable gardens is starting to wind down so if you haven't made plans for preserving some of your veggies, to enjoy later in the year, it's important to figure it out now. Pickled eggplant packed in olive oil with garlic and herbs is a great way to preserve garden grown (or store bought) eggplant. In southern Italy this is the primary way to preserve their beloved eggplant and is called melanzane sott'olio - literally, "eggplant under oil". Maybe you grew up with this, maybe you've had this as part of an antipasti assortment or sadly, maybe you've never heard of it... if you haven't, you can start now. You won't be sorry. 

Like a lot of "traditional" dishes, there are local variations and of course variations within families - different procedure preferences, different varieties of eggplant, different seasonings, different ways to slice, but common to all are a couple of easy, but important, steps you need to follow. The photos below lay this out. But here they are - 
  
1 - Sliced pieces or strips of eggplant are salted to draw out the moisture. This liquid needs to be squeezed out.
2 - Cook the eggplant pieces briefly in wine vinegar, and then squeeze out the excess vinegar.
3 - Add in the seasonings while layering the eggplant slices in a canning jar.  
4 - Let the flavors marry together for several weeks - or more. It gets better over time.
                              
I used these eggplants are from our garden - three Japanese eggplants and one black beauty.

Peel the eggplants and cut into strips. You could cut into thin slices crosswise or lengthwise but I prefer the strips.

Put the eggplant strips in a glass or ceramic bowl and add - for this amount of eggplant - about 1/3 cup Kosher salt. Mix through with your hands and let sit for 3 - 4 hours.The salt will pull much of the water out of the eggplant and make the pieces very pliable. In the bottom of the bowl there should be a pool of brown liquid. 

Drain the liquid and squeeze rest of the water out of the eggplant with your hands or put the eggplant in a colander with a weight on top or if you have a potato ricer, use it to squeeze out the rest of the liquid, like this - 

Pour white wine vinegar in a pot and bring to a boil. For the amount of eggplant I had, I used 2 1/2 cups.The amount of vinegar should be enough to cover the eggplant. Add the eggplant slices and cook for 3 minutes.Take off the heat and drain. Let cool. Then, using the same method as before, squeeze any excess vinegar out and put the eggplant slices in a bowl.

For the seasoning, I like to use minced garlic, sliced hot Calabrese pepper and fennel seeds. Some people like other herbs like basil or mint instead of fennel. Use what you personally like. Typically garlic and hot peppers are the two main seasonings.

Garlic - minced

Fennel seeds. These we grew, but use store bought fennel seeds

Hot Calabrese pepper. We grow these too, but you can use store bought chilies. Slice these into thin rings.

Put a little olive oil in the bottom of a caning jar and sprinkle a little garlic, sliced hot pepper and fennel seeds. Add enough eggplant to fill about 1/4 of the jar, Then repeat the seasonings and eggplant, 1/4 at a time until the jar is 3/4 full. Pressing firmly as you go to remove any air spaces. Finish by adding a  thin layer of olive oil., 

Put the lid and ring on the jar and refrigerate for about a week or two for the eggplant to absorb the flavors of the seasonings - if you can wait that long. Keep refrigerated but bring to room temperature to serve. Kept refrigerated, this will keep for six months. 

Clay figurine from Calabria, Italy, looking over one of the jars with discerning approval.

Eggplant with MInt

This eggplant dish is perfect as an antipasto, party food, a summer side dish or to take on a picnic. All the flavors work well together - garlic, mint, a bit of vinegar for tartness and of course the earthiness of the eggplant. Easy to make a looks cool on a serving plate. Here's how you do it - 

Ingredients:

1 large eggplant 

Oil for frying (all olive oil or 2/3 olive oil/ 1/3 canola oil)

2 cloves of garlic chopped

10 fresh mint leaves chopped

White wine vinegar

Thinly sliced hot chili to taste

3 - 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

4 tbsp coarse breadcrumbs

Kosher salt

Process: 

Peel a little of the skin off the eggplant and cut the eggplant lengthwise into pieces about 3“x 1”.
Put the pieces in a colander and sprinkle with Kosher salt

Let them sit in the colander for about half an hour.

Wash off the salt and dry the eggplant pieces on paper towels.

Fry the eggplant pieces in about ¼ inch of oil until browned. Don’t crowd the pan – fry in batches. 

Let drain on paper towels, then put on a serving plate

In a bowl, mix the extra virgin olive oil and the garlic together and drizzle over the eggplant pieces.

Sprinkle the mint, chili, white wine vinegar, a little salt and bread crumbs over the eggplant.

Serve at room temperature.

Eggplant With Uncooked Tomato Sauce and Pecorino Cheese

See, this is why you should have a vegetable garden, or at least grow a couple tomato plants, a couple eggplants and some basil in containers. We are fortunate to have a nice flat back yard that gets a lot of sun. This time of year here in Georgia so many herbs and vegetables are getting to their peak of flavor ready to be picked. Pulled three nice black beauty eggplants and three Cherokee purple tomatoes out of the garden this morning with the idea of using them to make eggplant parmigiana. I love eggplant but too many "eggplant parmesan" dishes are heavy, gloppy tomato-ey, cheesy messes. I wanted the eggplant to stand out and the tomatoes and cheese simply condiments for it. This dish is based on a recipe in the book - Franny's Simple Seasonal Italian (thanks again Brittany!). But I made a few changes, deciding to use an uncooked raw tomato sauce instead of cooked and Pecorino Romano cheese instead of mozzarella or parmesan.  

This really turned out great. The eggplant slices were nice and crisp and a little al dente. The simple raw tomato sauce was very aromatic with the individual ingredients keeping their identity.  You could clearly smell and taste the separate components - the sweet/tart Cherokee purple tomatoes, the lemony fresh basil, the pungent raw garlic, the background heat from the Calabrese pepper and the grassy olive oil. The salty pecorino cheese was perfect shaved on top. And on the side, savory grilled Italian sausage and sliced melon. Yah!       

Black Beauty Eggplants

Meaty Cherokee Purple tomatoes

Fresh Basil and a hot Calabrese pepper

For the uncooked tomato sauce:

Make sure to get the freshest ingredients possible. You won't be disappointed. Don't even try this with pale supermarket tomatoes. If you don't grow your own tomatoes and basil, wait until you can find some heirloom tomatoes and good basil at a farmers market. This will be your go-to pasta sauce for special occasions every summer. 

3 ripe home grown or heirloom tomatoes finely chopped. (Let their juices go into the sauce too.)

3 large garlic cloves finely chopped, not minced

1 nice handful of fresh basil hand torn into small pieces

1/2 cup of a good quality extra virgin olive oil

Optional - small hot chili pepper finely chopped

Pinch of salt and pepper

Combine the tomatoes, garlic, salt and pepper (and hot pepper if using) in a bowl. Pour in the olive oil and then the basil. Make this several hours ahead of when you are going to use it. Cover with plastic wrap and let it stand at room temperature so the flavors can mingle and develop. Stir every now and then and taste. Do not refrigerate. 

Slice the eggplants lengthwise into 1/4 inch pieces

Sprinkle with salt and let sit in a colander for about half an hour. Then wash off and blot dry.

Dredge each piece in flour and shake off excess, then dip in beaten eggs.

And then into breadcrumbs.  I used Progresso but you could use panko or make your own. Don't over bread, though, it will just come off in the oil and burn.

Pan fry the eggplant on medium high heat until browned about 3 min per side. Use inexpensive supermarket store brand extra virgin for pan frying the eggplant here. It will still give a good olive flavor. Save your better olive oil for other purposes, like the tomato sauce above. 

Spoon out a thin later of the tomato sauce on each plate.

Divide up the eggplant slices and spoon a little of the sauce over each piece, shave some Pecorino Romano cheese over top and a few basil leaves. 

Serve up a link of grilled Italian sausage on the side and some sliced melon.