Caponata Stew

The biggest thing I love about cooking is that a delicious, healthy and appealing dish doesn’t have to involve many expensive ingredients or fancy processes of preparation. Caponata stew is one of those impressing dishes that has become the go-to meal for me recently. It’s easy to prepare and it will take up any of the vegetables you want to empty out of your fridge.  This recipe is from Laura Vitale’s  videos.

From what was found on google, caponata is a traditional Sicilian dish which is often eaten as a side dish, but also as a main dish.  It consists mainly of eggplants, olives, onions and herbs. However, for your reference this recipe is by no means a traditional one.

Caponata Stew
Serves: 5

Adopted from Laura Vitale but the same idea of veggies stewed in tomatoes is still kept. Very small changes to the amounts of the vegetables used, olives were omitted because I never have them at home, also omitted hot pepper flakes, vinegar (because the tomato sauce is already acidic) and red wine.

few tablespoons of oil for cooking vegetables
1 cup chopped carrots
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 medium-sized onion (or 3 shallots)
1 1/2 large bell pepper (you can mix up different colours)
1 large eggplant, chopped
1/2 cup marinated artichokes
~25 ounces (725 mL) of canned  tomato sauce
1/2 cup water (optional, used to lightly dilute tomato sauce)
1 tbsp brown sugar
a handful of raisins
salt and pepper to taste
dried or fresh basil to taste

1. Use enough oil to cook all the vegetables except for the artichokes in a pot or a cooking pan that will be able to hold all the ingredients together. Cook on medium-high heat for about 8-10 minutes or until they begin to soften. Cooking everything in one pot will help make cleaning a lot easier.

2. Season with salt and pepper. Add in tomato sauce, artichokes,water and raisins. Let it cook over medium heat for about 30 minutes with occasionally stirring, or until the stew is thick and vegetables are tender.

3. Add in sugar and season with salt/pepper/basil.

4. Serve hot and enjoy. Leftovers can be refrigerated and frozen.

It’s hearty, filling and definitely something of a comfort food which is why I think it would be great for a holiday meal. You can have caponata with bread, pasta, noodles, in lasagna, and with other vegetables. Add in whatever else you desire. I am planning on adding cooked beans to this next time.

Days until Christmas: 4