Eggplant Caponata

📍 Origin: Sicily  ·  🌱 Vegan · 🌾 Gluten-free  ·  ⚠️ Allergens: celery, pine nuts

This dish will take your taste buds straight to Sicily: Sicilian eggplant caponata.

This flavorful combination of eggplant, tomatoes, raisins, and pine nuts accurately represents the island’s cuisine. Caponata Siciliana is arguably the most quintessential dish of Sicily. Even if you haven’t travelled to the island, you may be familiar with this kaleidoscope of typical local flavours. The dish epitomizes the island’s cuisine, incorporating influences from its different rulers, particularly the Spanish and the Arabs.

This dish is unique because of its sweet and sour agrodolce sauce, which combines white sugar and vinegar. Caponata is an entirely vegetarian preparation that can be enjoyed hot or at room temperature. However you serve it, caponata is never missing from a Sicilian family table!

Some curious facts.

Caponata was once called “Capponata” (with double “p”) because it was the sauce used by the Monsù of Palermo (court chefs) to preserve pheasants, hares and other game meat. The poor reduced the name Capponata to “Caponata” (with a single p). The less wealthy paired fried aubergine with a sour-sweet recipe with capers and green olives due to affordability constraints. The cheapest aubergine was even transformed into a fake quail: it was enough to leave the stem intact and make two cuts on each side to give the idea of a headless neck.

The first mention of caponata dates back to 1709, when it was mentioned as “acetarium et variis rebus minutium conficis,” “a salad and various small cooked things.”

Allergens & Dietary Needs

Allergens: Sicilian eggplant caponata includes pine nuts, celery, and tomatoes. If you have any allergies, please notify us in advance.

If you love Sicilian dishes and flavours, here are some more Sicilian recipes influenced by Arabs.

Learn to Make Eggplant Caponata in Genoa

Add Eggplant Caponata to your menu: choose it as one of your three recipes and cook it step by step with chef Lucrezia in her home kitchen in Genoa, then sit down to enjoy it with a glass of Italian wine. You will receive the written recipe by email, so you can make it again at home.

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