Is it possible, that this traditional Italian starter makes you drink more? I mean, could caponata make you drunk? I read the Vinatics post – and they drank 14 bottles of Welmoed wine. The theme this month for Vinatics was a braai and at their event, two of our eminent braai persona’s put the fire out (or, it could have been the rain but that does not sound so good). After meeting Cathy at the Adoro wine tasting I finally understood the concept of the monthly Vinatics challenge and this month was an easy one. I had already planned a braai for the night before the Food Bloggers Indaba, the guests were invited and the wine was waiting patiently in its box to be consumed.
My morning started with a visit to the airport to collect Sous Chef and The Only Cin and while they unpacked I made the caponata. We did not drink the Welmoed wine with this, but saved our wine drinking for the braai. And drink we did. Sous is a white wine drinker and there were four of us drinking red wine. The next morning 11 poor empty soldiers were placed into their box – destined for recycling! We had a great evening, drank lots (it must have been the caponata’s fault) and giggled and spoke and spoke and spoke. An awesome evening with my amazing friends.
The original recipe can be found here
Caponata
Ingredients
- 2 large red peppers quartered and seeded
- 90 mls olive oil
- 1 clove garlic thinly sliced
- 1 red onion chopped
- 30 mls fructose
- 85 mls red wine vinegar
- 1 aubergine cut into small cubes
- 10 small rosa tomatoes quartered
- 30 mls capers drained
- 8 black olives pitted and roughly chopped
- 5 g Willies Cacao
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to season
- 30 mls basil leaves roughly chopped
- 30 mls pine nuts toasted
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180° Celsius
- rub the red peppers with olive oil and place skin side up on a baking tray
- scatter the garlic over the peppers
- roast for 30 minutes until the skins have blackened slightly
- add a tablespoon of olive oil to a pan and over a medium heat, sauté the onions
- add the fructose and the vinegar to the pan
- reduce over a low heat until it is very slightly syrupy and remove from the heat when done
- in a non stick pan, add a tablespoon of olive oil and fry the aubergine until golden and cooked through
- remove the peppers from the oven, and place the peppers with the juices in a bowl and cover with cling wrap
- when they are cool peel the skins off
- reserve all juices, but discard the skin
- once all of this is done and the aubergine is cooked, add the tomatoes
- cook for two minutes as you want the tomato to be warmed through
- add the onion mixture, the capers and the olives
- when warm, grate the cacao into the pan and allow it to melt
- Season
- roughly chop the peeled red pepper and add with all its juices to the mix
- drizzle with the left over olive oil
- add the basil and the pine nuts
- serve at once while warm with baby pita breads
Click on the links for conversions and notes.
I was hoping that you were going to post this recipe. I read on Cindy’s blog that you served this.
🙂 Mandy
I was surprised at how good this was 🙂
ELEVEN??? We must have spilled some?
No wonder we snored!
all that matters is that the evening was a good one – and it was xxx
I’ve been wanting to do this for ages.. so thanks for the recipe !!!
enjoy!