Capers - how to use them
There are many Italian recipes that use capers - they are very popular, particularly in southern Italy. Here is a recipe for a very well-known dish called 'Caponata' and it comes from Sicily:
500g plump tender aubergines 1/2 wine glass of best quality olive oil, more if necessary, 100g sliced white onions, 500g tomato passata, preferably home made, 150g stoned green olives, 200g celery hearts, cut into chunks and blanched for a few minutes, 2 spoonsful salted capers, rinsed and drained dry, 1 dl best quality white wine vinegar, with 25g white sugar dissolved in it, a good scattering of pine nuts. Salt and pepper.
Cut the aubergine flesh into medium sized chunks, salt and a couple of spoonsful of water. Leave for half an hour. Rinse in fresh water for a few minutes, then drain and dry thoroughly with kitchen towel.
Put half the olive oil into a skillet and heat until almost smoking, then add the pieces of aubergine, season lightly with salt and pepper, fry until golden and then drain on kitchen paper. Put the oil used for cooking the aubergines and the rest of whatever unused oil is left in the glass, then add the onions and cook until transparent but not browned. Add the celery and the olives and stir in well, then add the tomato passata. Adjust for seasoning. Add the capers and pine nuts, and continue continue with the lid on until the celery is cooked through - about 15 mins. Then remove from the heat and allow to get completely cold before serving.Add some fresh basil if you wish. This is a magical dish for a very hot day under the Sicilian sun! Buon appetito.
A twist on this recipe would be to use the caponata as a sauce in which to cook white fish fillets such as cod, in which case you would add some chopped parsley as well as the sweet basil. This would be eaten hot.
Di reston
Enough is never as good as a feast Oscar Wilde
SLoB!
