Sicilian Caponata makes brilliant use of that eggplant

I look forward to mid-summer every year, and a garden full of eggplant, so I can make one of my favorite dishes — Sicilian caponata. It's an easy dish to make, taking only about 20 minutes of actual work.

Caponata's history is as layered as the dish itself. The name shows up in print as early as the early 1700s, and its exact roots are still debated among food historians. Some trace it back to the Latin word for tavern, since simple vegetable dishes dressed in oil and vinegar were once served there; others link it to capone, a fish once central to the dish, or to capperi, the capers that flavor it.

What's clear is that caponata is a true product of Sicily's crossroads history: eggplant arrived with Arab traders, tomatoes came later with the Spanish, and the dish's signature sweet-and-sour agrodolce sauce is thought to descend from a much older Persian tradition brought over by Arab cooks. Over the centuries it shifted from an aristocratic dish made with fish and game to the humbler, vegetable-based version most of us know today — with eggplant, olives, and capers standing in for the pricier ingredients of the past. It's said Sicily has dozens of official regional variations, and just about every family has their own spin on it besides — which is exactly how mine came to include raisins and, this year, a Spanish grape must.

Many recipes call for frying the eggplant, but I rarely do. Instead, I roast it — these days in my air fryer/oven, where it only takes about 10 minutes, comes out great, and doesn't heat up the kitchen in the middle of summer.

Then, other recipes usually call for a can of diced tomatoes, and you can certainly do that. I have, and it turns out great. But, I had a heaping basket of cherry tomatoes from the farmers market and wanted to go all fresh. So, I pulsed them a few times in the food processor — not a purée, just something rustic and chunky. That became the base of the sauce.

For the olives, I don't bother slicing them — I just pinch each one in half with my fingers and toss them in.

I also add big raisins (from the bins at Winco) to the mix, alongside the traditional pine nuts, to push the sweet-sour profile a little further. Usually I finish the dish with honey instead of white sugar, since sugar can taste a little one-dimensional here. But today I reached for something different: Arvum Grape Must. If you haven't come across it, Arvum Grape Must (also called arrope) is a Spanish syrup made by slowly reducing the juice of sherry grapes — palomino and moscatel — down into a thick, dark, complex syrup. It's sweet and tangy at once, and it traces all the way back to Roman times, when a version of it was used both as a sweetener and a natural food preservative. A spoonful in caponata adds a depth you just can't get from plain sugar. I keep it on the pantry shelf all the time, since it adds a certain complexity to so many dishes.

Sicilian Caponata

A sweet-and-sour Sicilian eggplant dish with celery, olives, capers, and raisins in a tangy tomato sauce.

Serves 4 Takes about 20" active time.

Ingredients

• 1 Italian 'globe' eggplant or a couple smaller Japanese eggplant, cut into 1-inch bite-sized chunks

• 1 tsp salt

• 6 tbsp olive oil, divided

• 2 celery stalks, chopped

• 1/2 onion, chopped or 2 large shallots, sliced

• 2 garlic cloves, minced

• 1 cup fresh cherry tomatoes, pulsed in a food processor a few times (rustic, not puréed) — or 1 cup canned crushed or diced tomatoes if fresh isn't available

• 1/2 cup green olives, pinched in half by hand

• 2 tbsp capers, rinsed

• 3 tbsp red wine vinegar

• 1 tbsp Arvum Grape Must (or honey, or sugar)

• 2 tbsp pine nuts (optional)

• 2 tbsp raisins

• 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, torn

• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Instructions

1. Salt the eggplant. Toss the cubed eggplant with salt in a colander and let sit for 30 minutes to draw out bitterness. Rinse and pat dry.

2. Roast the eggplant. Skip the frying — toss the eggplant with a bit of the olive oil and roast in an air fryer at 375°F or oven at 400°F for about 10 minutes, until golden and tender. Set aside.

3. Cook the vegetables. Heat the remaining olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook the celery and onion until softened, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more.

4. Build the sauce. Stir in the tomatoes, olives, and capers. Simmer for 5 minutes.

5. Add sweet and sour notes. Stir in the vinegar and Arvum Grape Must (or honey or sugar). Add the roasted eggplant to the pan and simmer everything together for 5 minutes, until the flavors meld.

6. Finish and serve. Stir in the pine nuts, raisins, basil, and black pepper. Let cool to room temperature before serving — caponata tastes best once it's had time to settle.

   
   

Serve with crusty bread, as a side dish, or piled onto crostini as an appetizer. It keeps well in the fridge for several days and, if anything, tastes even better the next day.