Sicilian vegetable stew (a.k.a. Caponata siciliana)   

Preparation: 2 hours
Cooking: 40 mins
    
Difficulty: Medium

Suitable for freezing

The queen of the vegetable stews! I have tried many, but this one is THE ONE I like most; its sweet and sour character, colourful appearance and flavour packed soul will make any vegetarian jump for joy and turn meat eaters into part time vegetarians. The Sicilian vegetable stew is known as “Caponata Siciliana”. There are many versions of the stew on the island (apparently 37 official versions), depending on local customs, and the difference between them is that sometimes people like to add other types of vegetables, sometimes people don’t add the potatoes or sometimes they add fish to it and so on. There are many theories about the origin of the name “Caponata”; one of them says that it has Catalan origin and that around 16th century the stew was made adding a fish called “capone”. However, only aristocratic families could afford to buy this kind of fish so, around the 17th century, poor families decided to use aubergines instead of fish and the stew was consumed accompanied with bread. There is another interesting thing about this stew and this is the use of raisins and pine kernels, which is something not so unusual when you come across Sicilian dishes; this is probably because of the influence of the Arab occupation of the island between 827 AD and 1091 AD. Anyway, it is a wonderful stew and I hope you really enjoy it. 

SERVES 6 PEOPLE