Name: Sicilian Caponatina with Olives, Pine Nuts, and Currants
Yield: Makes 5 cups, Serving 8
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: 3 cups diced tender celery heart ribs with some leaves; Pinch of crushed hot red pepper; 12 salted capers, rinsed and drained; 3 tablespoons dried currants, soaked in warm water for 5 minutes and drained; 2 large eggplants (about 1½ pounds each); 12 Sicilian green olives, rinsed, pitted, and drained; ¾ cup canned tomato sauce; 24 large fresh basil leaves, stemmed; ½ to ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil; 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon Coarse salt; 1 medium onion, chopped; 1 tablespoon finely chopped sun-dried tomatoes; ¼ cup pine nuts, lightly toasted (see Note); 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar, or more to taste; 1 tablespoon sugar

Preparation info

Makes 5 cups , Serving
8

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking

By Paula Wolfert

Published 2009

About

This recipe is inspired by one taught to me by Palermo-born Maria Sindoni, who shared her secrets with me at the kitchen stove in her restaurant Azzurro in New York back in the early eighties. While her version of this traditional dish has never bored me as others have, I must admit I’ve tampered with it over the years, adding a little more here, a little less there to make it my own. What I did not change, and what I found so inspiring, is Maria’s method o