Caponata: Sicilian Recipe

Caponata - Ingredients for 4 people - 80 gr pitted green olives; 200 gr of tomato paste; 2 eggplants; 1 red and 1 yellow pepper; 30 gr of salted capers; 1 tablespoon pine nuts; 2 stalks of celery; 2 tablespoons vinegar; 1 onion; 1 teaspoon sugar; oil; salt; basil.

Preparation - Rinse the eggplant, remove the stems together at the tip of the eggplant, cut a strip of peel only practicing a vertical cut that goes from tip to tip. At this point, cut the eggplant into fairly large cubes and fry in hot oil and place on paper towels to drain. Prepare the peppers: scroch directly over the flame and, when they are blackened, peel, remove stem, seeds and filaments, cut into thin strips.

Clean the celery removing all the green leaves , cut into pieces and boil in salted water. In a large container put to fry the sliced ​​onion, and add the boiled celery, pitted olives cut into pieces, pine nuts, capers, tomato paste. Season with salt and pepper and cook. When almost cooked, add to the sauce fried eggplant, peppers, and then cook for a few minutes. Meanwhile, dissolve the sugar in the vinegar and pour it into the sauce with eggplant. Make the vinegar blend well. Serve with fresh basil.