Sicilian Eggplant and Pine Nut Caponata Recipe

This agrodolce eggplant dish is packed with extra-virgin olive oil, raisins, pine nuts, herbs, vinegar, sugar, and a slew of other ingredients.

Overhead view of caponata, served in a wide bowl with toasted slices of ciabatta.

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

Why It Works

  • Cutting eggplant into smaller pieces precludes the need for any brining or salting before sautéing.
  • Adding the ingredients in the right order means you can cook the whole dish in a single skillet.

Imagine if some former Nickelodeon executive was to sift back through the vaults of TV history and say to himself, "We're going to make a show where Uncle Jesse and Launchpad McQuack drive around in Kit from Knight Rider, MacGyvering themselves weapons to battle the evil forces of He-Man and Orko and their sidekick Dave Coulier (from his You Can't Do That On Television years, not his Full House years). Each week will feature a special guest star drawn from the cast of Super Friends." Your first thought might be wow, that's a lot of awesome to try to fit into one single show, but if you're anything like me, that thought will be rapidly supplanted by a second: holy crap, that's a whole lot of awesome in one show!

Caponata, the Sicilian dish of eggplant and other vegetables sautéed in a sweet-and-sour sauce, is kind of like that. Packed with extra-virgin olive oil, raisins, pine nuts, herbs, vinegar, sugar, and a slew of other ingredients, it can be shockingly flavorful the first time you try it. And I'm not using the word shockingly lightly here. It's the kind of dish you have to recalibrate your whole mouth for in order to really appreciate. But once that recalibration is done, man oh man is it great stuff.

My wife and I took a trip to Sicily a couple of years ago and if you've never been, let me tell you: It's absolutely nothing like the rest of Italy. Sure, they speak Italian (albeit with heavy accents and alongside their local dialects), but the food, the culture, and the people are entirely different. (Not to mention the driving—driving a car down the narrow streets of Palermo or Catania makes weaving through the motorbikers on Bali seem like a stroll down a wide Paris avenue). Sicily's culinary history is wildly diverse. Arab rule in the 10th century brought sweet dried fruits, nuts, and warm spices to savory dishes. The Spanish brought New World ingredients like chocolate and peppers. The Greeks and North Africans have left their mark on the cuisine. The climate itself makes it ideal for growing tomatoes, eggplants, and olives (and you find those ingredients everywhere).

And all of these things find their way into caponata. Is it an appetizer? A side dish? A pasta sauce? A meal unto itself? The answer is yes: It's all of these things at one time or another, though I feel that depending on how you intend to serve it, the flavor ought to vary a little bit. The kind of flavor overload I'd want as a few bites on top of a nice piece of garlic-rubbed bruschetta would get fatiguing as an entire main course-sized portion (and generally I personally prefer to serve it as the former).

"For caponata, the eggplant pieces are cut small enough that their increased surface area helps them cook down much faster than larger wedges or slices of eggplant could."

Not long ago, I wrote about Sichuan-style eggplant with hot and sour sauce. In that recipe, I brine the eggplant first, which helps remove some of its excess moisture and delivers a more tender end product when sautéing. I figured I'd test out the same technique for my caponata recipe, but it ended up proving to be unnecessary; For caponata, the eggplant pieces are cut small enough that their increased surface area helps them cook down much faster than larger wedges or slices of eggplant could.

This is good news for you: It makes the dish incredibly simple. I start by sautéing eggplant in extra-virgin olive oil heated in a cast iron or non-stick skillet. As soon as it's mostly softened and nicely browned, I push it to the side of the skillet, add more oil, then drop in some scallions (I prefer their finished texture over that of chopped onions), bell peppers, celery, and thinly sliced garlic, sautéing them and tossing them together with the eggplant until tenderized.

Some recipes recommend adding raw pine nuts directly to the skillet, toasting them through contact with the bottom of the hot pan. I find that you get better flavor and toasting by performing the act separately. I toast my pine nuts in the microwave to speed up the process.

Now it's time to start layering on the other flavors: Chopped mint and parsley go into the pan (I also reserve some for sprinkling on top later), along with cinnamon, capers, and raisins. (I don't dig the cocoa powder that some recipes call for.) Though caponata is emphatically not a tomato sauce, a dollop of tomato paste adds richness and thickens up the sauce that binds the whole thing together.

Overhead view of caponata, garnished with torn mint leaves.
Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt.

Finally, we add the sweet and sour elements: sugar and vinegar. Some people use straight up red wine vinegar, which is probably more authentic. I prefer to use a mix of red wine and balsamic vinegar for its milder tang and woody aromas. (I'm talking the not-too-pricey balsamic you mix into vinaigrettes, not the extra-fancy stuff you drizzle on grilled meat.) Season your caponata with salt and pepper, dump it onto a plate, drizzle with more olive oil (you can't ever put too much olive oil into a Sicilian dish), garnish with some mint and parsley, and you've got yourself a pretty darn good excuse to leave that canned pesto or antipasti sitting on the supermarket shelf.

Now, if only we could figure out how to get that awesome TV show made with just 30 minutes and a skillet and we'd be all set.

February 2015

Recipe Details

Sicilian Eggplant and Pine Nut Caponata Recipe

Active 30 mins
Total 30 mins
Serves 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 cup pine nuts

  • 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving

  • 1 small globe eggplant (about 1 pound), cut into 3/4-inch dice

  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

  • 4 scallions, white parts only, sliced into 1/4-inch segments

  • 1 rib celery, finely diced

  • 1 red bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch dice

  • 4 medium cloves garlic, thinly sliced

  • 2 tablespoons minced fresh mint leaves, plus more for garnish

  • 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves, plus more for garnish

  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste

  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

  • 1/2 cup raisins

  • 2 tablespoons capers, drained and rinsed

  • 2 tablespoons sugar

  • 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Directions

  1. Toss pine nuts with 1 teaspoon olive oil and transfer to a large plate. Toast by microwaving on high power for 2 minutes. Continue microwaving at 30-second intervals until golden brown and nutty, 3 to 8 minutes total. Alternatively, toast in a toaster oven set at 375°F (190°C) until golden brown and nutty, about 15 minutes. Set aside.

  2. Heat 4 tablespoons oil in a large non-stick or cast iron skillet over high heat until shimmering. Add eggplant and cook, tossing occasionally, until completely softened and browned in spots (eggplant will initially absorb all of the oil then slowly release some of it), about 6 minutes.

  3. Push eggplant to the side of the skillet and add 2 more tablespoons oil to the center. Add scallions, celery, bell pepper, and garlic and toss to combine with the eggplant. Cook, stirring and tossing frequently, until vegetables are softened and aromatic, about 3 minutes longer.

  4. Add reserved pine nuts, mint, parsley, tomato paste, ground cinnamon, raisins, capers, sugar, red wine vinegar, and balsamic vinegar and toss to combine. Drizzle in remaining olive oil and bring to a simmer, adding water a tablespoon at a time as necessary until caponata has a sauce-like consistency that is loose, but doesn't run freely over a plate. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

  5. Let mixture cool to room temperature or refrigerate in a sealed container for up to a week. Serve at room temperature garnished with extra mint leaves and a drizzle of olive oil if desired. Serve with toasted bread or pasta.

Special Equipment

Large skillet

Read More

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
439 Calories
36g Fat
30g Carbs
6g Protein
×
Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4 to 6
Amount per serving
Calories 439
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 36g 46%
Saturated Fat 4g 21%
Cholesterol 6mg 2%
Sodium 299mg 13%
Total Carbohydrate 30g 11%
Dietary Fiber 4g 16%
Total Sugars 18g
Protein 6g
Vitamin C 40mg 200%
Calcium 44mg 3%
Iron 3mg 15%
Potassium 507mg 11%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)