Seafood Caponata
⏳ Time
25 minutes
🥕 Ingredients
18
🍽️ Servings
6
Description
Caponata is essentially ratatouille. Sicilian housewives prepare it by tossing kilograms of eggplants, tomatoes, and other vegetables into a single pot, and the result is irresistible. However, a Michelin-star chef is interested in perfecting each ingredient individually, and John Smith creates a sort of caponata building block.
Ingredients
- Octopus - 21.2 oz
- Langoustines - 6 pieces
- Eggplants - 2 pieces
- Tomatoes - 6 pieces
- Onion - 1 head
- Celery salt - 2 stalks
- Olives stuffed with lemon - 12 pieces
- Capers - 3 spoons
- Pistachios - 3 spoons
- Orange zest - 1 tablespoon
- Sugar - 3 spoons
- Champagne Vinegar - 2 fl oz
- Olive Oil - 5 fl oz
- Acacia Honey - 2 spoons
- Thyme - 6 stalks
- Ocean salt - 7.1 oz
- Salt - to taste
- Ground Black Pepper - to taste
Step by Step guide
Step 1
Blanch medium-sized tomatoes in boiling water and peel off their skins. Cut each tomato into six to eight wedges, removing the core and seeds, leaving a petal about 4 mm thick, depending on the juiciness of the tomato.
Step 2
Arrange the petals on a baking tray, season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle them with sugar, grated orange zest, and leaves from a few sprigs of thyme, then drizzle with olive oil. Place the tray in an oven preheated to 194°F. After three hours, you will have wonderful confit tomatoes.
Step 3
In a small dish, pour in coarse salt and place a whole onion, skin on, into it, ensuring it is submerged in the salt by an inch or two. Place it in the oven preheated to 284°F (284 degrees Fahrenheit) for one hour. The resulting onion will be very soft and aromatic, but not boiled.
Step 4
Peel the celery stalks from the tough outer skin and slice them diagonally into pieces about one centimeter thick. Drop them into boiling water for three to four minutes, then immediately transfer them with a slotted spoon to ice water to keep the celery bright green and crisp.
Step 5
Slice the eggplants into rounds about two centimeters thick, then cut each round into three or four wedges. Remove the corners of the spongy insides. Heat a little olive oil in a skillet and sauté the eggplants on all sides until they develop a beautiful golden-brown crust.
Step 6
Cut the tentacles of the boiled octopus into pieces about seven centimeters long and sauté them in oil along with the langoustines for three to four minutes. If you bought a whole raw octopus weighing 1.5 to 2 kg, you should boil it in unsalted water with an onion, a celery stalk, and a glass of white wine for about one to one and a half hours, covered.
Step 7
Prepare the sauce: drizzle some olive oil into a frying pan, add pine nuts, capers, and the flesh removed from the olives. Sauté for a minute, then sprinkle in two tablespoons of sugar and cook, stirring, until the nuts are coated in caramel. Add vinegar and acacia honey. Let the sauce simmer for another two to three minutes.
Step 8
Arrange the vegetables on the plates: first the eggplants, then add the confit tomato petals and the salt-baked onions on top. Scatter the celery and pieces of octopus around the plate, and place the langoustine in the center. If you manage to complete all the steps quickly, all the ingredients will still be warm.
Step 9
Drizzle the caponata with honey dressing, and it's ready to serve. Unlike the classic caponata, which is typically made all in one dish, this version will be vibrant, colorful, and diverse in texture — and just as delicious.
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