This is the third time I’ve made this, love it. I triple the recipe so there’s enough for friends, keeps well. I’m half Italian but those relatives never made this.
From advice from elsewhere, after I cube the eggplant (I prefer Chinese eggplants) I microwave it in batches, bit of salt, on paper plate for 10 minutes, then later on it gets fried. Once I tried baking but fried is better. I don’t add salt after frying because of olives and capers, even though he has you rinse and dry off the capers.
Oh yes, he wants you to pit green olives; that’s too difficult. I buy spicy pitted green olives at Rainbow in SF … didn’t have quite enough so pitted some Kalamatas.
Nonsense! Just because you are not sure about how to do a link, your posts are as welcome here as anyone else’s. I’ll try and drop you a PM with advice for including a link in your post tomorrow.
I’ve not made his particular recipe, but I’ve loved caponata ever since I was introduced to it at an Italian restaurant in Berlin, many moons ago. Their version is still my absolute standard, and every other iteration has to compete. Theirs was just eggplant, tomato, celery, raisins, toasted almonds and pine nuts. I’m not crazy about capers or olives in mine.
Frying the eggplant in batches makes a huge difference, and is far superior to baking it. I usually make a big batch for dinner parties, bc I don’t like frying in my kitchen too often. There are never any leftovers.
