Aubergine & Pepper Caponata - Recipe

Golden spice roasted aubergines are slowly simmered in a amalgamation of the Mediterranean holy grail of peppers and tomatoes and other delicious flavour things like pomegranate molasses and a fantastic balsamic vinegar.

PREP TIME: 20mins
COOKING TIME: 45mins

Serving Suggestion:

The combination of flavours makes it uniquely delicious and versatile, perfect for a mezzo platter served with

• Middle Eastern Focaccia or spiced yogurt flatbreads 
• Baba Ghanoush 
• Chickpea filled Sweet Potatoes 
• Rocket Salad 

Serves 2 (easily doubled up)

Ingredients:

• extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 kg aubergines cut into bitesized chunks
• 700 g fresh tomatoes roughly chopped
• 3 red onions peeled, finely sliced
• 100 g red or green peppers
• 4 garlic cloves thinly sliced
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon rose harissa optional
• 2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
• 2 tablespoons aged balsamic vinegar see note
• 1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives
• 1 tablespoon capers roughly chopped
• salt & pepper

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 200c, line a large baking tray with baking paper
• To make the spice mix heat the pepper, fennel, cumin and coriander seeds in a small frying pan (no oil) until fragrant, tip into a mortar and pestle until fine, add the garlic clove, pinch each salt and pepper and enough good olive oil to form a paste.
• Add the aubergines to the lined baking tray and pour the paste over, with your hand, rub the mixture into the aubergines. Its important that the aubergines lay in a single layer in the baking tray and don’t overlap each other. Drizzle with oil (yup a dry aubergine is a leathery aubergine) and roast in the oven for 20 minutes or until golden and cooked through, tuning once. Keep aside.
• Meanwhile, in a large saucepan on a medium to high heat, add a good glug of oil, add the peppers, onions, garlic, pinch of salt & pepper and cook (you want to hear a good sizzle) until soft and starting to caramelise. Its best to keep the lid on while you are cooking the veg, this creates steam which keeps the veggie moist, moist veggie are happy veggies.
• Once the veggies are soft, add the tomatoes, tomato paste, pomegranate molasses, rose harissa (if using) balsamic vinegar, the olives and caper. Season well with salt & pepper, finally add the aubergines (and any pan juices or spice rub).
• Gently simmer, with the lid on, for 40min until all the veggies have broken down, especially the aubergines and you have a lovely thick sauce. Taste and season with more molasses and/or balsamic vinegar to get that addictive salt and sweet taste. Add the chopped herbs.

Enjoy!

Recipe by Adre's Kitchen

Tags: aubergine-pepper-caponata-recipe