Caponata

Every summer I plant something different in my garden, just to see how it works. The potatoes were interesting, we grew enough to make a big bowl of potato salad. We tried banana peppers, but how many banana peppers can two people eat? My husband enjoyed the yellow squash, but I got tired of them quickly. This year, we decided to plant onions and Japanese eggplant. The onions grow from starts that are planted early in the spring and harvested after their greens die back, usually in the fall. Our onions didn't do very well and their green shoots died back early, so we dug the tiny, plum-sized onions up. The eggplant, however, flourished and when we came back from our August vacation we found half a dozen long, curved, slender eggplants on the plant.

I picked them all, then stood in my kitchen and wondered what the hell to do with them. Japanese eggplant are skinnier, more delicate and have thinner skins than the large, bulbous Italian eggplant we typically find in the grocery store. I wanted a recipe that would showcase their sweet and succulent flavor and caponata sounded like an interesting choice. Caponata is a Sicilian appetizer or relish made of sauteed eggplant with celery, onions and tomatoes flavored with vinegar, sugar, capers and olives for a sweet and sour effect. Its delicious served cold with crackers or toasted bread or spooned over a piece of fish or chicken. I read several recipes, gathered some ideas and went to work.

CAPONATA

4 cups cubed eggplant
1 cup diced celery
1 cup diced yellow onion
2 cups peeled, chopped tomatoes
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tbsp tomato paste
3 tbsp capers
1/2 cup chopped green olives
3 tbsp white or red wine vinegar
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
salt, pepper, chopped fresh parsley, thyme or basil to taste

You can prepare this luscious concoction any number of ways. Some recipes call for splitting the eggplant, roasting it in the oven and scooping out the flesh when its soft. Some recipes call for chopping all the veggies and roasting them together on a sheet pan in a really hot oven. I suppose those methods would add more of a smokey flavor, but once the eggplant is roasted it still needs to be cooked together with the tomatoes, garlic and other ingredients. I opted for the ease and simplicity of a single skillet preparation. Regardless of the technique, the idea is to cook the vegetables down so they become soft and sweet, but not until they disintegrate and disappear. Since the eggplant skins can be tough and indigestible, I decided to peel mine but its more traditional to leave the skins in tact.

I started with the onions and celery, cooking them over medium high heat with salt and pepper in a large skillet just until slightly translucent. I added the garlic and tomato paste and toasted them briefly before tossing in the eggplant. Allowing this to cook over relatively high heat will give you some caramelization in the bottom of the pan, which adds that depth of flavor you want in caponata. I let this go for about 10 minutes, until the veggies started to stick to the pan a bit and there was a nice layer of fond developing. I added the tomatoes, 2 tablespoons of vinegar and 1 tablespoon of sugar and as I stirred, I scraped up that beautiful fond and mixed it all back in as it cooked. At this point, the whole mixture needs to cook over medium low heat for about 15 minutes to allow the tomatoes to break down, the liquid to evaporate and the flavors to concentrate.

As the caponata cooked, it filled my house with a tangy and savory aroma. After 15 minutes, the tomatoes had integrated and the veggies were soft, but the eggplant and celery still held their shapes. I added the capers, olives and the rest of the vinegar and sugar and gave it just 5 more minutes to simmer gently before removing the pan from the heat. At this point, you could add different things like raisins or pine nuts depending on your taste, but I left mine as is. Since this mixture is best served cold or at room temperature, its important that the seasoning is right. When foods are chilled, the flavors become muted, so make sure you have enough salt and pepper to account for diminished flavor when the caponata is cold. I tasted, adjusted the seasoning, added some fresh herbs and put the finished caponata in a bowl in the fridge while I toasted some sliced baguette for the big reveal.

We enjoyed our caponata as a pre-dinner snack, slathered on crispy, toasted baguette slices with a nice glass of hard apple cider. The eggplant and celery had mostly cooked down, but there were still visible chunks and the bright, briny pop of the green olives and capers whetted our appetites. The caponata sat in the fridge all week and each day when we got home from work, we'd snack on it and marvel at how much better the taste was from the day before. The longer this stuff sits in the fridge, the yummier it gets and its an excellent vehicle for showcasing the unctuous earthiness of eggplant. So next time you're looking for an unusual hors d'oeuvres, give caponata a try.

Stuffed Eggplant

For home cooks everywhere, social media provides a constant stream of inspiration and an excellent forum to share our experiences. My personal feeds on Instagram and Facebook are filled with beautiful pictures of food, links to recipes and posts from some of my favorite chefs and culinary publications. When I see something interesting, I make a mental note and start devising a recipe in my head. That's what happened when a video popped up in my Facebook feed showing a recipe for stuffed eggplant Parmesan.

I do love eggplant, although I grew up eating it prepared one way - dredged and fried. I made the mistake one time of buying a rather large one because I had a craving for that fried eggplant of my childhood. It was entirely too much fried eggplant and despite the yummy eggplant Parmesan I made to use some of it up, I was totally sick of it after a couple days. For many years, it was a forgotten vegetable for me, but when I saw that video of the stuffed eggplant, I started building my own recipe in my head. A few days later, my husband and I were at local outdoor market and a Greek food vendor was selling stuffed eggplant with a ground meat filling, rich tomato sauce and a topping made of thick bechamel. It was absolutely delicious. The eggplant shell had absorbed the juices from the meat and was soft and unctuous. I made up my mind to experiment with this recipe the next day. 

I had a tub of San Marzano tomatoes in the freezer from my garden and I was able to find some small to medium sized eggplants at the store. I picked up the other ingredients I needed and headed home to make magic in the kitchen. The beauty of this kind of recipe is that you can do anything you want with it - just let your imagination run wild. 

STUFFED EGGPLANT PARMESAN

3 small to medium sized eggplants

2 large cans of San Marzano tomatoes

1 large yellow onion

4 cloves of garlic

1 8 oz ball of fresh mozzerella cheese

1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

1 cup Panko bread crumbs

1 medium sized fresh tomato or 12 fresh grape tomatoes

1/4 cup of chopped fresh basil

1/4 cup of chopped fresh parsley

Salt, pepper, dried oregano and red pepper flakes to taste

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees. I made my own tomato sauce, but you don't have to.  If there is a jarred sauce you like, you can omit this entire step in the process and save some time. However, its really not difficult to make and it's absolutely worth the minimal amount of effort to have a simple, homemade sauce that is full of flavor. Put a medium saucepan over medium heat and drizzle about a tablespoon of olive oil in the bottom. Chop half the onion into a medium dice and add it to the pot with some salt and pepper. While the onion is cooking, open your cans of tomatoes and lift the tomatoes out into a separate bowl and reserve the juice for a later step. Crush the tomatoes with your hand, making sure to break them all up into very small pieces. Once the onions begin to take on a little brown color around the edges, thinly slice two cloves of garlic and add them to the pot. It only takes a couple of minutes for the garlic to become fragrant and begin to brown. That's when you want to add all the tomatoes. Turn the heat to low and let the sauce cook covered for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

While your sauce is cooking, you have time to work on your eggplants. Cut them in half lengthwise so you have two even halves. With a small paring knife, cut the flesh of the eggplant all the way around about half an inch from the skin. This will give you enough space to wedge a spoon in and scrape out the flesh of the eggplant, which you want to set aside. It takes a little work, but what you want to end up with is an eggplant boat that you can fill with stuffing. The skin can be leathery and unpleasant to eat, especially in large pieces. Ultimately when the dish is served, you will be scooping the cooked eggplant away from the skin as you eat it. Put your eggplant boats in a roasting pan, drizzle them liberally with olive oil, salt and pepper them and place them in the oven while you make your stuffing. 

Now, this is the fun part and the place where you can let your imagination soar free. I'll tell you when I did, but don't let that hold you back. You can use whatever stuffing you like. Some sweet Italian sausage or ground beef would be good in here. I can imagine making this dish with ground lamb, fresh oregano and feta cheese. It would be yummy with mushrooms, zucchini or even spaghetti squash in the filling. You could add chopped Calamata olives, pine nuts, raisins, any kind of cheese that strikes your fancy or even chopped fresh apples. The possibilities are endless. 

If you are using meat, that will be the first thing you cook.  Brown it in a large skillet over medium high heat until it is cooked through and set it aside in a bowl to cool. Chop the other half of the onion and the garlic, add it to the same pan and cook it over medium heat until translucent, about 8 minutes. Chop the pieces of eggplant you set aside into bite-sized chunks and add them to the pan. You may need to add a little extra olive oil at this point as the eggplant acts like little sponges and will soak up whatever moisture is in the pan. If you were adding any other veggies, this would also be the time to add them to the pan. Cook everything together and allow it to breakdown a bit, adding salt, pepper, dried oregano and red pepper flakes to taste. Finally, add about half a cup of the liquid from the canned tomatoes and place a lid on the pan. Let that cook for about 10 minutes, or until the vegetables and soft and cooked through. The finished mixture should have a sludgy texture with very little or no extra liquid in the pan. If your mixture is too  juicy, turn the heat up to high and let the liquid cook away until you have a tight mixture. Scoop it into a bowl and take your eggplant boats out of the oven and let everything cool off for about ten minutes before moving to the next step. 

I like my tomato sauce smooth, but if you like yours more chunky, this is another step you can skip. I used an immersion blender to make a smooth sauce, tasting and adjusting the seasoning as I blended. Cut your cheese into small cubes, dice your fresh tomatoes, chop your herbs and now you're ready to assemble. Add your cooled meat to the veggie mixture, add the cubed cheese, add the tomatoes and herbs, half a cup each of grated Parmesan and Panko bread crumbs and mix everything together. Fill each eggplant boat with a generous amount of stuffing. Ladle sauce over each eggplant boat and cover the tops with the rest of the grated cheese and breadcrumbs. I also ladled some of the sauce into the pan so the eggplant would kind of be floating in a thin bed of sauce as it cooked.  Cover it loosely with foil and place it back in the oven. It needs about 45 minutes to cook completely, but take the foil off half way through the cook time so you can get some browning on the top. That cheese will be as hot as molten lava when it comes out of the oven, so let it cool in the pan for at least 15 minutes before you serve it. 

I served mine over angel hair pasta, but it would be good over rice or with just a piece of crusty bread for sopping up the sauce. This is one of those dishes that can go in any direction. Its not terribly difficult and looks very impressive on the plate. This is also a great dish if you're entertaining vegetarians and if you leave out the cheese, its great for your vegan guests. Whatever you stuff in your eggplant, I hope you'll share your experience on social media and create your own community around the food you love to cook.