Tag: eggplants

Sicilian caponata: the original Palermo recipe – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

Tasty, comforting, it embodies the whole Mediterranean. There caponata Siciliana, side summer par excellence, was born in Sicily and today it is widespread and appreciated throughout Italy thanks to that unmistakable sweet and sour flavour. Cold, warm and room temperature, it really is irresistible and if it is served on a slice of toasted bread it can even represent an appetizer or a main course. Loved by vegetarians and omnivoresinitially it was also prepared with fish, while today the best known variant it is the one based on suns vegetable ingredients.

Sicilian caponata: the numerous versions

From caponata Siciliana they exist numerous versions but what is certain is that the eggplant they cannot be missed and that all the ingredients they must be individually prepared to be united only at the end. In the alone Sicily at least they can be counted four variations of caponata: a Catania among the ingredients there are also: peppers red and yellow, e.g Agrigento in addition to peppers there are the olives black but not the green ones, a Messina woe betide using concentrate for the benefit of tomatoes fresh it’s at Palermo there recipe that is performed is yet another.

Sicilian caponata: the Palermo recipe

A mix of fried vegetables (otherwise it’s not caponata!) and then pan-fried with a sauce based on sugar and vinegar: this is the secret to obtaining the original Palermo Sicilian caponata from the typical one sweet and sour taste.

Ingredients for 6 people

1 kg of long aubergines
250 g of tomato sauce
80 g of pitted green olives
60 g of desalted capers
60 ml of white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 golden onion
1 stalk of celery
extra virgin olive oil
fresh basil
salt

Method

Start preparing the Sicilian caponata by draining the aubergines. Wash them well with running water, cut off the end with the stalk, cut them into slices a couple of centimeters thick and collect them in a bowl. Sprinkle with coarse salt and place a weight on top. After about an hour, rinse them well with fresh water and let them drain on sheets of absorbent paper. When they are well drained, cut them into cubes.
Pour into a large pan oil and when it is hot, fry the aubergines until golden brown. Remove them with a slotted spoon and let them drain on absorbent paper for fried foods.
Clean the celery, wash it with cold water and cut it into pieces more or less the size of the aubergines. Blanch it for a few minutes in boiling salted water and drain it.
Pour the sugar and vinegar into a bowl and mix until the sugar is completely dissolved. Keep aside.
Peel the onion and chop it finely. In a saucepan, fry the chopped onion in the oil for a couple of minutes, taking care not to let it burn. Also add the capers and blanched pieces of celery and leave to flavor for a few minutes, stirring often.
Add the olives and tomato sauce to the saucepan. Mix, add salt and cook for five minutes. Finally add the aubergines and the sweet and sour sauce. Mix with a wooden spoon until the ingredients are well blended. Season with salt, turn off the heat and flavor with the basil.
Let the caponata rest and serve it at room temperature so the flavor of the vinegar will be less intrusive.

Which aubergines are used to make caponata?

The types of aubergines that would be best to choose for making Sicilian caponata are the “violet” type, like – needless to say – the long Palermo violet. This type of aubergines are characterized by elongated shape and from very firm pulp which holds up well to cooking while remaining intact and compact.

Eggplants stuffed with meatballs – Italian Cuisine

First, wash and peel the aubergines, dig out the pulp (leaving a shell about 1 cm thick) and cut the pulp into small cubes.

Heat a little oil in a non-stick pan, then cook the eggplant shells for 4-5 minutes on each side, in order to brown and flavor without letting them soften too much.

Put the shells aside and, in the same pan, also cook the pulp, turning often to cook and evenly dice the cubes.

In the meantime, prepare the meatballs: add in a ground bowl, salt, pepper, chopped parsley, lightly sponged and squeezed bread, egg and Parmesan and mix, then create the meatballs with wet hands, making small balls of dough of a couple of cm in diameter.

Always in the same pan that you used for the aubergines, cook the meatballs too, stirring frequently, then set these aside.

Meanwhile, separately, prepare a sauce with garlic, oil, cherry tomatoes and a little salt: cook for about ten minutes, then add abundant basil, the meatballs and the aubergine pulp.
Continue to cook for another ten minutes, to flavor and shrink, then add the diced mozzarella, slightly squeezed.

Take the eggplant shells back, arrange them in a baking dish, fill them with the filling and cook for about 15 minutes in a preheated convection oven at 200 ° C.

The aubergines stuffed with meatballs are ready: let them at least cool down, then serve them with fresh basil.

How to prepare baked eggplants – Italian Cuisine

Hot on a sandwich or with delicious slices of stringy cheese on top, these vegetables are ideal for a quick meal or a hearty snack

They go well with second courses of meat and fish, but they also make a great impression on their own. It's baked eggplant, easy and quick to prepare, also perfect to put cut into pieces in a nice sandwich, perhaps accompanied by a little fresh cheese.

Nutritional values of aubergines

Originally from Asia, the aubergine came to Europe around 1500, spreading widely in Spain and Italy. The eggplant they few calories, low in fat, protein and glycids and few sugars. They are also fairly rich in vitamins of group B, C, folic acid, potassium, phosphorus, sodium and calcium, as well as boasting important diuretic properties.

Baked aubergines: the recipe

To prepare the baked eggplants, for four people, it is necessary to obtain four eggplants (the best variety is that Palermo), two cloves of garlic, a sprig of basil, as well as olive oil, salt and pepper as required. First, wash the aubergines and cut them in half vertically, then cut the pulp with diagonal cuts first in one direction and then in the other. Take a pan, grease it with oil and transfer the aubergines. Except, however, chopped garlic and basil and place everything in a bowl with plenty of olive oil. At this point distribute this dressing on the aubergines: if the oil is not enough to season the vegetables well, pour more on each aubergine. Add salt and pepper to taste and bake everything at 180 degrees for about half an hour. After this time, let the aubergines cool and at the end serve them on the table or put them on a fresh bun: in both cases it will be a success.

With cherry tomatoes or cheese

In addition to traditional preparation, recipes with baked eggplants can have numerous variants. For example, slices of freshly baked aubergines can also be added mozzarella or cheese, so as to dissolve them slightly. Another solution contemplates i Cherry tomatoes, cut into four and bake halfway through cooking with the aubergines to further give color to the dish. Or you can add a sprinkling of aubergines to the aubergines before baking them parmesan and some large sliced tomatoes: the result will be a mouth-watering side dish.