Global Cuisine

An Italian Caponata Delicacy

Name of Employee: Graziana Furnari

Age: 28

Nationality: Italian (Sicily) 

Location: Is-Suq tal-Belt Food Market

Role: Cashier 

This month’s Global Cuisine article features one of our Italian employees, Graziana, who grew up in Catania, Sicily. The Sicilian upbringing was described beautifully by Graziana, with abundant greenery and kind, generous people. She mentioned one of the popular feasts of St. Agatha, the patron saint of Catania, which is celebrated on 5^th February. It is custom to wear a white dress to the feast, symbolising the Saint’s purity in her martyr death. Graziana moved to Malta looking for new opportunities and has enjoyed her experience working with Arkadia so far. She started off as a salesperson and is now working as a cashier at the Food Market where she describes the team as being very helpful and supportive of each other. When we got to her favourite food, Graziana was excited to tell us about her own version of Caponata, a Sicilian delicacy prepared differently everywhere you go.

Caponata Recipe: The Catanese Way

Level: Easy

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

• 2 egg plants
• 2 red peppers (or 1 red and 1 yellow)
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 10 green olives, pitted and chopped
• 200gr tomatoes, peeled and chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 10gr pine nuts
• 10gr raising
• A coffee cup of white vinegar diluted with a tablespoon of water
• 2 tbsp sugar
• Salt to taste
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• Basil, to garnish

A wide variety of quality ingredients for our recipes are available from Arkadia supermarkets in Malta and Gozo, including Arkadia FoodExpress Swatar and Arkadia Food Market Valletta.

Method:

1. Chop the egg plant into big chunks. Place chunks aside in a colander and sprinkle with salt. Cover the colander with a plate for the egg plant to drain itself from water.

2. Cut the peppers in half and remove the seeds and the white filaments. For the peppers to be more easily digested, boil them with a little salt. Once softened, drain the peppers, and let them cool.

3. In the meantime, soak the raisins in water, vinegar, and sugar.

4. When the peppers are still lukewarm, peel off their skins and cut into pieces.

5. Fry the onions with the celery in a tablespoon of olive oil. Add the tomatoes and a bit of salt and cook for 10-15 minutes. Once ready, put the sauce aside.

6. In a large frying pan, stir-fry the peppers in a little bit of olive oil and salt. Once ready, put aside.

7. Fry the egg plant and once cooked, add the bay leaves to the pan. Gradually add the peppers, olives, sauce, pine nuts and raisins to the pan, including the vinegar, water, and sugar in the raisins’ water.

8. Once ready, let it dry and deglaze. Pour the caponata into a container and top off with two basil leaves as garnish.

Optional: It is a Catanese tradition to add sausage to the caponata if you wish.

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