My friends in Japan always insisted that eating is best in the fall--after the harvest.
Oh, it's true those autumn foods in Japan are to die-for.
But summer is not bad either! Cold sake and cold noodles, eel and mugi tea. In California, summer bursts at the seams with tomatoes.
One of my favorite foods for summer (is this my phantom Southern Italian heritage?) is caponata. "The perfect food for a hungry man" (and woman?) someone said....
I love the colors-- and more, I adore the sweet and sour tastes--like amarone wine, it is a surprise of complementary tastes. Giorgio Locatelli, in his book Made in Sicily, says caponata is Sicily's "baroque heritage at its best!"
Everyone makes it differently. But the basics are sacrosanct: eggplants, celery, and green olives with vinegar (1/4 cup) and sugar (2 tablespoons).
I read that some people serve it with garlic. Not me. Some with almonds. Not me. Some make fancy caponata with lobster or octopus... Never!
For me, I love it like this: saute the yellow onion and add the passata. Then, capers and pine nuts with chopped celery, green olives, pine nuts, anchovies --salt and pepper; sugar and vinegar and simmer for twenty. Later I add in the eggplant (which was dried in salt two hours, rinsed and fried and then chopped). Served in my caponata dish, I make a meal out of it as with eggs and cheese. And lots of Etna Rosso!
Amazing to read that in Sicily they have winter caponata (with artichokes and lemon!) and Christmas Caponata with almonds, green olives, celery, raisins and pomegranates! I am definitely going to try that sometime!
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