Caponata di Melanzane (Sicilian Sweet-and-Sour Aubergine)

// SUPPLY LIST

// OPERATIONS

1. 1 Cut the aubergines into 2.5 cm cubes with the skin left on, toss them in a colander with 2 tbsp of the fine sea salt, set a plate and a weight (a 400 g tin of tomatoes is about right) on top, and leave to drain over a bowl for 1 hour — you should see three or four tablespoons of brownish liquid collect underneath. Rinse the cubes quickly under cold water, then press them hard between clean tea towels until they feel dry and slightly leathery: any water left in the cubes will make the hot oil spit violently and will steam the aubergine grey instead of frying it.
2. 2 While the aubergine drains, bring 1.5 litres of water with the remaining 1 tbsp fine sea salt to a rolling boil in a saucepan, drop in the celery slices and blanch for exactly 3 minutes, until the tip of a knife enters with slight resistance and the pale stalks have brightened at the cut edges. Drain and spread on a tea towel to dry completely. Skipping the blanch leaves the celery woody in the finished dish; going past 4 minutes turns it limp and it will collapse into threads once the vinegar goes in.
3. 3 Pour the frying oil into a deep, heavy 22 cm saucepan or Dutch oven at least 9 cm tall — 1.2 litres gives you a bath about 3 cm deep, enough to float the cubes clear of the base without filling the pan more than a third of the way — and heat to 180°C (355°F); a cube of aubergine dropped in should sink for a second, then rise and hold in a steady, busy fizz. Fry the aubergine in four or five loose batches, never more than a single uncrowded layer, for 3-4 minutes a batch, until the cubes are deep golden brown all over and give softly when pressed with tongs, letting the oil climb back to 180°C (355°F) between batches — crowding drops the temperature and gives you grey, oil-logged aubergine. Lift each batch onto a wire rack set over a tray rather than onto kitchen paper, which traps steam and softens the crust. Do not substitute oven-roasting here: roasted cubes go hollow and papery and dissolve into the sauce, and it is fried aubergine, sealed outside and creamy inside, that lets caponata drink the agrodolce without turning to purée.
4. 4 Fry the dried blanched celery in the same oil at 180°C (355°F) for 2 minutes, until the cut edges are pale gold but a piece still snaps faintly when you bite it, then lift onto the rack with the aubergine. Turn off the heat under the frying oil and let it cool; you will not need it again.
5. 5 While the oil cools, toast the pine nuts in a small dry frying pan over medium-low heat for 2-3 minutes, shaking the pan constantly, until they are pale gold and smell of resin and warm butter, then tip them straight onto a cold plate. They carry on colouring in a hot pan and turn bitter within seconds of going too far, and pine nuts stirred into the sauce raw never toast at all — they stay soft and faintly turpentine-ish in the finished dish.
6. 6 In a wide 28-30 cm sauté pan at least 6 cm deep, of stainless steel or enamelled cast iron — bare cast iron or aluminium will react with the vinegar and give the caponata a metallic, tinny taste — warm 60 ml of the extra virgin olive oil over medium-low heat and cook the sliced onion for 12-15 minutes, stirring often, until completely translucent, floppy and sweet-smelling. Do not let it take on colour: browned onion pushes the dish towards a bitterness that the sugar cannot hide.
7. 7 Add the passata, season with a pinch of salt, and simmer over medium-low heat for 10-12 minutes, stirring now and then, until the sauce has darkened from bright red to brick and small pools of orange oil separate at the edges of the pan — that separation is the signal the tomato has lost its raw edge. If it still tastes sharp and thin, give it another 3 minutes now rather than trying to paper over it with extra sugar later.
8. 8 Stir in the olives, drained capers, squeezed sultanas and the toasted pine nuts and cook for 2 minutes, just until everything is glossed with sauce and the capers smell floral rather than sharply saline. Taste for salt at this point and add none if the capers have already brought enough — Palermo households vary on the sultanas and pine nuts, and some leave them out entirely without the dish ceasing to be caponata, but they are traditional here and they are what carries the Arab-Norman sweetness through the vinegar.
9. 9 Dissolve the caster sugar completely in the white wine vinegar in a small bowl, stirring until you cannot feel grains against the side, then pour it into the pan and raise the heat to medium-high. Boil hard for 2-3 minutes, until the sharp vapour that catches the back of your throat softens into a sweet, rounded perfume and the base pulls together glossy, with no thin liquid running free when you draw a spoon across the pan. Adding the vinegar and the sugar separately, or cutting this boil short, leaves a raw acrid note in the finished dish that no amount of resting will fix.
10. 10 Take the pan off the heat, tip in the fried aubergine and celery, and fold everything together with a rubber spatula in slow, deliberate turns, lifting from the bottom rather than stirring, or the cubes will break down to mush. Let it stand 2 minutes in the residual heat, then taste and adjust: it should read a fraction sharper and a fraction sweeter than you actually want, since both soften overnight, and it will usually take a further 1 tsp vinegar or 1 tsp sugar plus salt and a few grinds of black pepper.
11. 11 Spread the caponata no more than 4 cm deep in a wide ceramic or glass dish so it cools to room temperature within the hour, then cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours and ideally 48; it keeps 5 days and goes on improving for the first three. Serving it the same day is the most common way to ruin an otherwise correct caponata — the flavours stay separate and shouty, and the aubergine has not yet drunk the agrodolce.
12. 12 Take the dish out of the fridge at least 1 hour before eating and serve at room temperature, around 18-20°C (64-68°F), never fridge-cold and never hot, both of which mute the sweet-and-sour entirely. Tear the basil over just before it goes to the table, add a thread of the remaining 15 ml extra virgin olive oil, and serve as antipasto with good open-crumbed bread, or alongside grilled swordfish or tuna as Palermo most often eats it.

// CLASSIFICATIONS