Pasta Alla Caponata | Sicilian Vegetable Pasta | Food Wishes

Hello, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with pasta ala capanada. That's right. I'm going to show you how to turn this famously delicious Sicilian vegetable relish into a sauce, which we will then use to make one of the most delicious pasta dishes ever. In fact, it's so delicious and satisfying, the carnivores in your crew will not even realize it's vegetarian. And to get started, we will prep the star of the show. A couple nice small firm eggplants. And of course, when we buy these, we want to look for dots, not slots. Right? Eggplant that have a round dot at the end usually have less seeds than ones that have a large slot-like shape at the end. So, you want to check for that before you buy. But either way, we'll go ahead and trim the green part off the top. And then, no matter what eggplant recipe we're talking about, people will always argue whether it should be peeled or not. But instead of taking sides, let's do what I think is best, which is to peel off half the skin. And I think that way we get the best of both worlds, right? Something that's more visually interesting and has a little bit of that texture, but not too much. And then what we'll do once our eggplant is peeled is take a knife and cut this into thick slices about a/ inch thick or so. And for me, the best tool for this is a large serrated bread knife, which will go through that tough skin with almost no effort. And that's it. We'll go ahead and line up a few slices at a time and slice them into strips. And then once we have strips, we can turn it and slice across into cubes. And of course, some of the pieces are going to be smaller or larger than others, which is fine, but we do want to try to get most of them fairly uniform. Not just for visual reasons, which is part of it, but mostly so our eggplant pieces cook at the same rate. And what we'll do once we have our eggplant cubed up is transfer it into a large bowl and we'll sprinkle over about a tablespoon of kosher salt and we'll give it a toss. And while this step is optional, I think it's one of the most important keys to a great capanada since by tossing this in salt and letting it sit for about 20 minutes. We're going to pull out some of the moisture and bitterness. And I think the final product has a better texture and definitely a better flavor. And if you can, while it sits there, give it a toss once in a while. And while it's hard to see here, as you toss this, you're going to feel a good amount of moisture on the surface. And once our eggplants's been salted, we will transfer that into a strainer and give it a quick rinse in cold water. And then we'll simply let that sit and drain while we move on to start the actual sauce. And that'll begin by adding a lot of olive oil to a pan, preferably Sicilian olive oil, along with two peeled cloves of garlic that we've lightly crushed with the flat of the knife. And over medium heat, we'll sizzle that garlic for about half a minute. Not to cook the garlic, but rather flavor the oil. Which is why after about a half minute to 45 seconds, we will pull that out. And we'll reserve that for later. And we will carefully go ahead and transfer our drained eggplant in and crank our heat up to high. And we will cook that, stirring and/or tossing occasionally for about five or six minutes or until the eggplant starts to caramelize a little bit and it goes from being firm and raw to something that's just starting to soften up and get tender. Oh, and one quick tip here. After you toss, it's a good idea to pat and press the eggplant down so we're getting maximum surface contact with the pan. But anyway, when it does start to soften up and it looks like this, we will transfer that back into the strainer set over the bowl and we'll place the pan back down and we'll pour in some of that garlic scented olive oil that's drained through. And we'll set our heat to medium high and we'll transfer in our other vegetables, which is going to be the holy trinity of onion, pepper, and celery. And we'll give that a generous pinch of salt. And then we'll cook this stirring or tossing until those onions turn translucent. and those veggies start to turn tender. And no, I can't give exact times because it depends on how small you cut your veggies and your pan and your heat. So, you'll have to observe and decide. I mean, you are after all the capo of how far to go. But right about here, mine seemed just about perfect. And when we reach this point, we can add the next set of ingredients. And those will include some pine nuts for a little bit of richness, a subtle nuttiness, and a touch of sweetness. I'm also going to toss in a pinch of chili flakes for a little bit of heat. And then a whole bunch of beautifully briney capers. We can also toss those garlic cloves back in if we want. Then we'll go ahead and give this a toss and cook this for about a minute. And once that's been accomplished, we will add our sweet and sour elements, which for me is going to be a spoon of sugar, followed by a couple tablespoons of red wine vinegar. And by the way, when I'm making the relish and not the pasta sauce, instead of sugar, I like to use currants or chopped up raisins, which you could also do here, but I went with the sugar. And then what we'll do after that's cooked for about a minute is transfer our eggplant back in. And we will continue to cook this still on mediumigh heat until that eggplant is just about as tender as we want it to be, which for some folks is going to be completely soft and falling apart. while other people won't cook it any further at this point and leave it kind of firm. So again, that's going to be up to you. Oh, and I should mention if I was making actual capanada, we would just add a little bit of tomato product at this point and just cook it for another couple minutes and we'd be done. But here we are actually going to transfer in two whole cups of tomato. Since again, we're not making a relish, we're making a pasta sauce. And of course, like any good half Italian, I have to wash out the container with a little bit of water so as to get every last bit and also add a little more moisture. And what we'll do is stir that in and let it cook for about 3 minutes or so. And by that time, our vegetables should be just about perfect. And for me, perfect doesn't mean really soft. It means just about tender with just a tiny touch of texture still intact. And once we think we've gotten to that point, we'll grab a spoon and give it a test, checking both the texture and the taste. And the first thing was perfect, so I turned off the heat. But I thought this needed another pinch of salt, which we don't even have to stir at this point since that'll get mixed in when we add our pasta, which ideally has been cooking alongside as we've gotten to the end of our sauce production. And I decided on some mezzy rietoni, which I find to be the ideal shape. Right. Regular rietoni would also be perfect, but for me the half rietoni soaks in the sauce even better. And once our pasta is cooked to our liking, we will transfer that into our sauce using a spider style strainer. And we can turn the heat under the sauce on to low. And as usual, it's totally fine if a little bit of water comes with it. In fact, you're probably going to end up adding a ladle or two to adjust the moisture level of the sauce, which after giving this a stir is exactly what I did. And then besides a ladle or two of that, I also like to tear in some fresh basil. Okay, if you tear it instead of cut it, the edges won't turn black and it will look and taste better. So, I went ahead and tore up six or seven nice big leaves. And then we'll turn off our heat and give that one last stir. And of course, one last taste test. And that's it. Once we're happy, or at least happy with the pasta, we'll go ahead and plate that up, ideally in some kind of shallow bowl. And then I like to finish up with a little grating of pecorino cheese followed by a nice colorful fragrant sprig of basil. And our pasta ala capanada is ready to enjoy. So let me grab a spoon and a fork and go in for the official taste. And that my friends is one of the most flavorful, most interesting, most addictive pasta sauces you will ever taste. And the reason for that is this has a little bit of everything. Are a little sweet, a little sour, are a little bit salty, a little bit briny, definitely aromatic and very savory. With everything I just mentioned being enhanced and amplified by that touch of bitterness in the eggplant. And when you have all those things working together, there's no way this is not going to taste incredible. Oh, and while this is of course intended to be served hot, the cold leftovers with an extra little drizzle of olive oil and maybe another splash of vinegar makes for an incredible pasta salad, especially when served over some nice cold, crunchy greens. So, keep that in mind if you have some leftovers and you're looking for a nice lunch on a hot day. Oh, and speaking of summer, feel free to do a version of this with some cubed up zucchini, which you can do with or instead of the eggplant, and that's also really, really good. But whether you add other things or not, this is absolutely a pasta recipe that should be in everybody's rotation. And I really do hope you give this a try soon. So, please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much more info as usual. And as always in joy. Oh,