Attended a party last night in the hills above Chianti, about 70 people.
We had a sweet and sour, preserved bell peppers, cut into wedges and served with tonné sauce, pureed tuna with hardboiled eggs, capers and olive oil.
Two pasta’s one with porcini sauce and the other with tomato and eggplant with basil.
The roast pork Arista from Dario’s Macelleria Cecchini, and a fabulous turkish dish, Eggplant ( to make you faint) need to find the recipe, perhaps in Claudia Roden’s books.
Here is one online- This looks like the same recipe, but my friend used mint!
It is eggplant time, in class I made a sort of Sicilian Caponata.(updated: this blog post was written before i started going to Sicily, in Sicily no bell pepper is used.)
It takes awhile to make but worth it! It is fabulous cold and keeps well.
Ingredients
- 2 eggplants, cut into cubes
- 2 bell peppers, cut into small pieces
- 2 red onions ,sliced
- 2 celery stalks, slice width-wise
- 2 tbs capers
- 1/2 cup pitted green olives
- 2 tbs red wine vinegar
- oil for frying, I use Extra Virgin
- 2 tbs sugar
- salt to taste.
Instructions
- Saute the celery first and take it out when tender and out in a bowl.
- Saute the onions and bell peppers together, when cooked, place in bowl with the celery.
- Fry the eggplant in oil, it will take more as it absorbs.
- When the eggplant is tender, add the ingredients in the bowl and stir to mix together.
- Add the capers. olives, sugar, vinegar and salt.
- Stir and let cook together for 10 minutes covered over low heat.
- Taste and adjust the seasonings. Serve cold:
The best caponata I had was at a dinner arranged by Antonio of Carabe at the Sosta di Rosellina in Settingnano above Florence.
They served the caponata with a bittersweet chocolate sauce that was incredible!
It’s my lovely eggplant’s dish!
Fantastic taste!
The Turkish dish is called “Imam Bayilidi” which actually means “the Imam Swooned”. You will too: it’s great. Incidentally here is another Turkish eggplant dish to look up. It’s called “Karni Yarik”, and means “split(or halved) belly” because the eggplant is served whole but split down the middle and stuffed. A great looking dish that tastes good too!