Over the weekend we were having a family dinner that I needed something not too hard for, and I decided on caponata.  It’s one that my Mom taught me as she learned it from her Grandmother.  It’s an Italian dish (I think from the South, but I’m not sure).  It does take a little time, mostly because of lots of chopping, but it’s certainly not hard, and the results are great.  I’m trying to decide what to do with the leftovers, which only get better.

I started with two medium-sized eggplant, diced.  I cooked them in olive oil until they started to soften up a bit, some salt at this point helps.  Then I added some chopped onion, two chopped red bell peppers, garlic, oregano, and just a touch of pesto (I didn’t have any dried basil, or that would have been my first choice). 

Once that’d sauteed a bit, I added about 3/4 cup golden raisins, about as many green olives, and maybe 1/4 cup of capers.  Then about 1/4 of balsamic vinegar.  The trick is to balance the raisins and the onions against the vinegar/capers/olives to get a nice sweet and sour.  In times past I’ve added a touch of honey, but in this case the onions and raisins were enough. 

Just before serving I tossed in two sliced zucchini, and cooked it until they were just softening. 

Very tasty, and really easy.  Better the next day.  I served it with some polenta cooked with some aged fontina cheese.  The relative plainness of the polenta worked well against the caponata.