Yellow tomato and eggplant caponata

Yellow tomato and eggplant caponata: A traditional Sicilian caponata has capers and celery included in the ingredients. We omitted the celery but added our Pantellaria capers to produce the most amazing caponata ever! 

The capers from Pantellaria, Italy, are considered to be the best in the world and it was worth waiting for them to arrive from Italy before starting to produce our eggplant caponata for you to enjoy at The Farm. We had wonderful feedback and it turns out that you love the stuff. So here is our gift to you … the recipe.

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The Yellow Taxi tomatoes sometimes available at The Farm at Rockledge Gardens, are some of the sweetest and juiciest we have had the pleasure of enjoying since leaving Italy! Combined with a basket of their eggplant, this eggplant caponata is extremely tasty, very rich and perfect as an stand-alone sauce or paired with fish, meats and other vegetables.

We used our yellow taxi tomato and eggplant caponata to create our salad lasagna.

Ingredients: Makes 3.5 cups (800 grams)

• 5 – 6 medium to large Yellow Taxi tomatoes, cut into 6 – 8 segments (although any good quality tomato will do)
• 12 small or 5 large eggplant, diced small
• 1 level tablespoon smoked paprika
• 1 level tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 level tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves, washed, lightly bruised and finely chopped
• 4 level teaspoons salt
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon fennel seeds
• 1 tablespoon lemon pepper
• 1 small handful of fresh fennel leaves and fresh Italian parsley, finely chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 365F/185C.
2. Arranged the tomatoes in a baking tray and toss with 2 teaspoons of salt, that paprika, oregano and 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.
3. Place in the centre of the oven, uncovered for up to 1 hour, turning once.
4. In a large frying pan over a medium to high heat, add the remaining olive oil, fennel seeds, lemon pepper and diced eggplant.
5. Fry the eggplant until they soften and begin to turn brown. Then lay them in a baking tray and place in the centre of the oven with the tomatoes.
6. Remove the tomatoes and eggplant from the oven together.
7. Blend the tomatoes with 1 third of the eggplant then add the resulting purée into the rest of the eggplant and combine with the fennel and parsley.
8. You can refrigerate your caponata in an airtight container where it will keep for up to 5 days.