A delicious caponata

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A delicious caponata recipe filled with flavours reminiscent of Sicily.

Servings: 6

Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: Mediterranean

2 eggplant cut into 2 cm cubes, large, about 900 g, aubergine is synonym
extra-virgin olive oil for cooking
1 yellow onion finely chopped, large
1 red bell pepper finely chopped, or yellow bell pepper, big
1 celery finely chopped, stalk
3 Tbsp tomato paste
60 ml water 100 ml
1 canned chopped tomatoes
1 brown sugar depending on how sweet you want it - I went with 2, 2 tablespoons
1/4 white wine vinegar 1 cup + 2 tablespoons
2 caper drained ( I liked 3, 3 Tbsp
½ cup green olives pitted ( I didn't bother pitting them)
½ tsp chili flakes optional, dried, 1 tsp
basil roughly chopped (about 7gms, a small handful
2 - 3 tbsp pine nuts toasted

Cup of Yum

Preheat the oven to 200C /
In a large baking tray, toss a little olive oil through the chopped aubergines, season with salt and pepper and roast for 40 minutes until starting to crisp up around the sides and cooked through. Give the pan a shake and toss the vegetables once or twice during the roasting time.
While the aubergines are roasting, heat a glug of olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan and fry the onions, pepper and celery until soft. About 5 minutes. Add a splash of water if they start to stick. Add the tomato paste and a little more of the water and cook for a minute or two until the water has cooked off. Add the tin tomatoes and sugar and cook for 10 minutes.
Add the vinegar, capers, olives and chilli and cook for about 2 minutes. Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Stir through the cooked eggplant/ aubergines/brinjal. Once coated finish off with the shredded basil leaves. Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper if required.
Allow to cool to room temperature and serve with toasted pine nuts. Store in the fridge in a sealed container and the flavour develops over a day or two. This is a fantastic relish to add to all manner of things.

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