Stephanie
Tantillo Fucile
A Sicilian eggplant spread, or even salad on it's own. Acidic from red wine vinegar, capers, and olives. Sweet from raisins, caramalized onions, and sugar. Rounded out by eggplant, zucchini, pine nuts, peppers, and tomatoes. This is all over Sicily in the summer. Each town, and even each person will have different variations. Some make it very sweet, others even add chocolate! Mine flirts with the acidic side quite a bit, so be sure to rip in some fresh basil at the end.
Caponata
extra virgin olive oil
salt to taste
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 medium eggplant, cubed
1 zucchini, cubed
12 oz san marzano peeled tomatoes
30 grams raisins
30 grams pine nuts
15-20 capers
10 kalamata olives
50 ml red wine vinegar
pinch sugar
fresh basil, torn
Lightly salted the cubed eggplant and lay in a strainer to drain excess liquids for about 20-30 minutes, Pat dry with paper towel
Meanwhile, begin to saute the onions in extra virgin olive oil. Add in the peppers and cook until soft. Season with salt to help draw out the liquid at this point. Once they are softened, remove from pan and begin to cook the eggplant. Add more oil if needed, (don't be afraid of using a lot of oil-we're in Sicily) and salt to season.
After about 15 minutes when the eggplant is soft and browned, add in tomatoes, break apart with wooden spoon and cook 10 minutes. Add back in pepper mixture.
Add in raisins, pine nuts, capers, olives and vinegar, and sugar. Lower heat and cook 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add in torn basil, stir.
Allow to cool to room temp or chill in fridge before using