Summer Staple: Caponata (Berkshire Eagle Column)
Although you do have to turn on the oven for part of this recipe from last week’s Berkshire Eagle column, after you’ve made it, you’ll have enough for several meals or snacks, or something to share at a picnic on the lawn at Tanglewood. It’s great on toasted bread, tossed with pasta, or just eaten with a fork, and makes a great addition to an antipasti platter.
CAPONATA
by Elizabeth Baer
When the thermometer rises when we’re still in school – as it occasionally has recently – my thoughts turn to what I can cook without cooking! Often this means making something late at night so the house can cool off overnight, or early in the day before things heat up, something that need not be served hot.
A few weeks ago, my thoughts on this score turned to caponata, an Italian vegetable stew of sorts, usually served at room temperature. And yet I don’t love making a traditional recipe because frying the eggplant takes too much oil and cooking all of the vegetables separately involves way too much standing over the stove on a hot day.
Looking for an easier method, I remembered one of the ways I love to make eggplant. As much as I love a cheesy, layered eggplant parm – which we do make on occasion – again, it’s a lot of frying and takes a lot of effort. My somewhat offbeat variation involves baking eggplant and tomatoes for a long time until they almost melt together. I wondered if this might cut some of the active time for caponata, and indeed it works quite well.
The baked eggplant and tomato recipe itself is quite versatile, both in the flavors (I also like a middle eastern inspired version with za’atar and tahini) and in the uses (in a roll for an eggplant parm sandwich of sorts). You can bake that part of the recipe well ahead of time, when the weather is most agreeable, and put together the rest of it later. Or you can make the whole recipe ahead of time and just bring it to room temperature before serving.
Caponata – which, by the way, is vegan – is traditionally served as part of an antipasti platter and eaten on bread, or sometimes just with a fork! We like to grill slices of bread that have been lightly drizzled with olive oil. Other options include warming it in a pan as a pasta topping, or even just putting the hot pasta into a bowl with some room temperature caponata. (If it’s hot, I usually choose a strand pasta that cooks really quickly to minimize the heat and steam in the kitchen.)
Stay cool!
CAPONATA
Makes about 1 quart
INGREDIENTS:
3 Italian eggplant
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided, more to taste as needed
½ teaspoon dried oregano
6 plum tomatoes
1 medium onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
Pinch red pepper flakes
Pinch freshly ground black pepper, more to taste as needed
2 tablespoons golden raisins
5 large green olives, pitted and chopped
1 tablespoon capers, drained
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar, more to taste as needed
2 tablespoons pine nuts
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 450°F.
Trim the stem end off the eggplant and cut in half lengthwise from stem to blossom end. Choose a baking dish that will hold the eggplant halves cut side up without too much extra space. Drizzle 1 tablespoon olive oil in the bottom of the baking dish. Cut a crosshatch pattern into the cut sides of the eggplant and arrange in the baking dish cut side up. Sprinkle ½ teaspoon kosher salt and the oregano on the eggplant, and drizzle ½ tablespoon olive oil on top.
Core the tomatoes and cut in half, also from stem to blossom end. Arrange two tomato halves cut side down on each eggplant half. Place in the oven and bake for 45-60 minutes until the tomatoes start to blacken and the eggplant is tender. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
In a medium sauté pan, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium high heat until shimmering and fragrant. Sauté the onion and celery with the remaining ½ teaspoon kosher salt, red pepper flakes, and ground pepper until the onion is softened and translucent.
Remove the onions and celery to a bowl and add the raisins. Cut the baked eggplant and tomato into large pieces and add everything to the same bowl, including any juices from the bottom of the pan. Add the olives, capers, and red wine vinegar. Mix well, taste, and adjust seasoning or vinegar as needed. This is crucial as olives and capers will vary widely in saltiness.
Before serving, if the caponata has been in the refrigerator, bring to room temperature. Toast the pine nuts in a dry skillet (or if you are short on time, you can skip this step) and mix the pine nuts into the caponata.
Serve on toasted or grilled bread, or over pasta or as a condiment for grilled meat.