Caponata

Caponata is nothing but an italian side dish or cooked salad made with eggplants and capers. If you search for the recipe, you will get a lot of them with different variations. I looked up on foodnetwork website for this since I wanted to make it as a topper for the crostini. I did not use one recipe, but combined couple of them based on our taste preferences. We don't like celery and I omitted it. Among my visitors, there was someone who doesn't eat nuts, so omitted pine nuts. I however, increased the squash to compensate for not using celery. Overall, this recipe is based on Anne Burrel's Caponata recipe.

One year back - Coconut Chocolate Rolls/Buns
Two years back - Cake Decorating Basics - 1, Blondies from a Cake mix
Ingredients:
Eggplant - 1 large chopped into 1" cubes
Yellow squash or zucchini - 2 medium chopped into cubes (Or use part celery and just one squash)
Olive oil - 3 TBSP divided use
Salt - to taste
Red Onion - 2 medium chopped or sliced
Diced tomatoes - 1 15 Oz can with juice (Or use about 4 plum tomatoes)
Red chilli flakes - to taste (I used 1 TBSP and it was spicy and perfect for us)
Sugar - 2 tsp
Red wine vinegar - 3 TBSP
Capers - 1/3 cup
Green Pitted olives - 1/3 - 1/2 cup sliced
Golden raisins - 1/4 cups
Mint - chopped about 3 TBSP (Or use parsley)
Toasted pine nuts - 1/4 cup (I omitted since I wanted to keep it nut free)

Method:
In a skillet, heat 1 TBSP olive oil. Add eggplant chunks and stir. Sprinkle some salt and cover and let it cook stirring occasionally to make sure they don't burn. Set aside. In the same skillet or another one, heat the remaining two TBSP of olive oil. When hot, add chopped onions to the pan. Sprinkle some salt, add the squash pieces and celery if using and mix. Let it all cook. When the onions are cooked and squash is soft, add the eggplants, tomatoes, sugar, red wine vinegar, and chilli flakes. Let them simmer till almost all the water has evaporated. Add golden raisins, capers, olives. Mix well and adjust the salt if necessary. Add mint and mix well. Close the lid and turn off the heat after 2 minutes. When it cools to room temperature, store in the refrigerator. This actually tastes better after sitting in the refrigerator for a day. Heat lightly before serving. I served it on crostini as an appetizer.

Wondering what bread it is? it is an italian bread for which, I will post the recipe soon. And if someone wants to drool over this, here is another picture for you.

Enjoy.

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