Delicious, easy-to-make, no-forks-required, healthy and beautiful: Caponata on baguette rounds hits all the marks, making it one of my favorite appetizers for entertaining. Silky with caramelized baby eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, onion and garlic plus the bright briny flavors of capers and olives, caponata can be served warm or cold.
I’ve used a variety of small eggplants when making this–Fairy Tale (pictured below,) Italian (also pictured below,) and Indian. All are good, but I especially like the stripey Fairy Tale which are sweet and very tender. If you can’t find the diminutive kinds, small Globe eggplants will also work.
Caponata
August 21, 2024
Category
Veggielicious
Persons
8
Prep Time
10 minutes
Cook Time
30 minutes
Total Time
40 minutes
Ingredients
- 5 or 6 small (5-inch-long) eggplants (I used both Italian eggplant and Fairy Tale eggplant), cubed
- ¼ cup olive oil, divided
- 2 small onions, peels discarded, chopped
- 6 garlic cloves, peels discarded, minced
- 1 red bell pepper, core and seeds discarded, chopped
- 1 green bell pepper, core and seeds discarded, chopped
- 1 lb. fresh Campari tomatoes, rinsed well
- ½ cup mixed Greek olives (pitted) coarsely chopped
- 1/3 cup capers
- 1 ½ Tbsp coconut palm sugar
- ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- 1 fresh French baguette, sliced
Instructions
- ROAST EGGPLANT: Preheat oven to 375. Discard stem ends of eggplants. Leave skins on. Cube. Spread cubed eggplant on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with half of olive oil; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast in 375 oven for 20 minutes until soft and caramelized.
- COOK VEGETABLES: While the eggplant roasts, add remaining olive oil and the chopped onion to saute pan over medium heat for 3 minutes. Add 1 Tbsp water, cover and cook, removing lid to stir occasionally, until onion is well softened (about seven minutes.) Remove lid and add garlic. Continue cooking, stirring often until garlic has softened. Add chopped peppers. Stir. Cover and cook until peppers have softened. Add whole Campari tomatoes. Cover pan and continue cooking until tomatoes have heated through. Remove lid and using a potato masher, smash tomatoes. Remove roast eggplant from oven and add to the pan, stirring to incorporate. Sprinkle sugar over the vegetables and stir in the vinegar. Reduce heat to medium low and cook an additional 10 to 15 minutes, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan, until you have a thick, glossy mixture. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat. Caponata is good served warm, or, refrigerated for a few hours and served cold.
- TO SERVE: Place caponata in a serving bowl. Slice baguette into rounds. Mound caponata on the baguette slices. Serve.
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