Separate and then combine: caponata

In the blog I wrote yesterday, I mentioned Chef Carlo Middione. Chef Carlo, as everyone calls him, operates out of San Francisco and its environs. He used to have a restaurant, right across the street from where we stay in that lovely city, and it was one of his favorites. It was his restaurant when we encountered, for the first time, the line "I'm sorry, but the strawberries just weren't satisfactory for the tart, so we have..... today." This was also the place I had my first white truffles, on a day when I had sprained my ankles, was on crutches, and was about to terminate a vacation a week ahead of time, because I literally couldn't walk. But long before his restaurant, Chef Carlo had written a book called "The Food of Southern Italy." The book came out in 1987, long before "regionalism" took over, and of course, well before Southern Italian cooking was "discovered." For years, it was one of my cooking "Bibles." I still use his book for things like torta rustica. I have seen dozens of recipes for it since I read his, his is still the best. As is his caponata recipe. And frankly, as I leafed through the book before writing this, I said "I have to get reacquainted with this stuff." And I do. Grazie Carlo.

Caponata is one of those foods that you see, unfortunately, almost always in glass jars, that have to be "treated" for shelf life. I hate that. This is a recipe that takes a little time to make, but for heaven's sakes, if it will last for few days, dont' make tons of it, or share it with people, and don't worry about shelf life. In fact, all of your cooking should be based around a simple principle: if I'm not going to use it within a week, it doesn't belong in the refrigerator. There are some exceptions to that, like prosciutto, or parmesan cheese, and so forth, but with produce, and produce based products, treat it as absolute.

Now that eggplant is in season, this is a great thing to have around. Yes, you will be cooking and chopping for a while, but the result is well worth the time. Eggplant is in high season now, and celery (yes, celery has a season in New York), has just come in. The tomatoes are beautiful, so start chopping, start frying and get to work. And, like ratatouille, do it in steps .

As always, I've modified the recipe somewhat. I remember I told Chef Carlo that when I met him and he said "you're supposed to do that. " So, make your own modifications.

You'll need a bunch of ingredients. First, get about a pound of fresh tomatoes. I don't bother peeling them, but if you want to go through the trouble, cut an x in the bottom, put them in some boiling water for two minutes, run them under cold water, and peel away the skins. Then core them and dice them. Put them aside. Now, get out your frustrations by getting about a cup of olives, half green and half black, and pitting them. SLAM a knife against them to break the olive, and pull out the pit. Then collect the olive meat, and put that aside. You'll also want to consider some raisins. They are really essential to the dish, to keep its Sicilian "agrodolce" flavor. Chef Carlo suggests two big tablespoons. I kick it up to a quarter cup, which is about four. If I have golden raisins, I use them, but if I don't, red flame raisins or thompsons are fine. You should keep them in some hot water to plump them.

Similiarly, get about two tablespoons of capers. When Chef Carlo wrote this recipe, it was nearly impossible to find good, salted capers in the United States, and they were all in jars, in brine. Times change. Now, spend some money, get a small jar of Pantelleria capers, put three tablespoons of capers in a small bowl, and let them sit in warm water. Change it a few times, to pull out the salt.

You'll also need a pound and a half or so of eggplant. Like I said yesterday, better to get two small ones, rather than one big one. Peel it, and dice it. Dice it small. About one inch is what you want. You will also want to cut half moons of celery, until you have about a cup. Then, dice a big onion, to about the same size as your eggplant. Finally, have lots of olive oil and red wine vinegar around. Now, start cooking.

Add a good quantity of olive oil. 1/3 of a cup is not too much. Heat it up at a good high temperature, and when it's hot, add the eggplant, and about a heaping teaspoon of salt. Let the eggplant cook for about three or four minutes. If you try to m ove it before this, it's going to stick and if it sticks anyway, give it another minute. Then start pushing it around, and letting it brown. You want them browned, not burned. It may take you about ten minutes to get there, and you may need to add more oil. Let your pan cool for a few minutes when it's done, and you've moved the eggplant to a bowl. Now repeat, with celery, using enough oil to cook it in comfortably. 1/3 of a cup is way too much. Maybe two tablespoons. Cook this at a lower temperature, and when it gets a bit golden, add some salt, and remove it from the pan, adding the celery to the eggplant. Repeat this procedure for the onions, and when they're done, combine them with the other vegetables.

It's very hard to have a pan big enough to do the next step, so I now move all the ingredients to a big pot. All of the cooked ones, and all of the other ones (the tomatoes, the capers, the olives, everything but the vinegar), and cover the pot, and lower the heat. You want this to cook for about twenty minutes. This is truly slow food at its best. Stir it every five mnutes or so. NOw add the vinegar, and taste. If it's too tart for you, add a dab of honey. If it's too sweet, add some more vinegar. I almost always add more vinegar. Let it cool.

I make a pig of myself with this. Once it's cool, I'm in there with bread, scooping it out and eating like I haven't eaten in three days. Chef Carlo suggests various options for serving this as a contorno with meat or fish, and for making it more substantial, by adding more things to it, but I am so in love with it, as it is, that I won't add them. Note that traditionally, there are a few tablespoons of pine nuts in the final product, but I just don't care for that. So I don't add it. Do so if you like, but try it just plain. I think you'll be very happy.