Barefoot Cooking and Capers

So the other day when I had gone grocery shopping I picked up an eggplant. That's not a euphemism or code for anything  as I legit bought an eggplant. The rationale behind it went like this: "Hey eggplant is on sale! I haven't eating eggplant in forever...wait I've never cooked eggplant before."  So with no plans or previous experience I bought one thinking I'll figure it out at some point.

I wasn't really a big eggplant fan growing up. I think mostly it was due to texture as I don't recall ever hating it per say. That being said at some point I became a fan of baba ganoush - as far as I can tell that's just a food item but if it was someone's name I could be a fan of theirs too. Funny enough baba ganoush did not cross my mind when thinking of things to make with the eggplant nor did it come across my internet search for eggplant recipes. But I did come across one recipe that seem intriguing to me from Food Network's "Barefoot Contessa" show.

Now I've seen this lady Ina Garten's show before but always found her kind of boring show wise. Now if you're like me you might have thought "what the hell is a barefoot contessa?" Or maybe you though "what does being barefoot have to do with cooking?" No clue but did research and found out that contessa means "Italian countess".  Interestingly enough Ina Garten isn't Italian nor did she specialize in it's cuisine. The name actually comes from a store she bought which was named after 1954 Ava Gardner movie. Guess that falls into the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" category.

All that being said she had a recipe on foodnetwork.com for Roasted Eggplant Caponata. Had no clue what a caponata was prior to seeing this recipe. I'll save you the trouble of googling it- it's a Sicilian eggplant dish. Suppose it fits in with Italian countess theme.Pretty much had all the ingredients minus one: Capers. I'm fairly certain I've never eaten capers knowingly as I couldn't even describe the taste or even where you would pick some up in a store. That being said it also added to the new foodie adventure category so I was down.

The eggplant that captured my imagination...and heart? 

Frying up some onions, garlic, and pine nuts

My mixing game is on point

Final product/presentation w/ grilled cheese sandwich

So I pretty much followed the recipe - barefoot of course to pay homage to it's creator. There were two exceptions I did make towards the recipe. First off I used sweet onion instead of a yellow onion. I generally prefer sweet onions but also helps that I had one in stock so why go buy a yellow onion. Second variation was adding more roasted red pepper. This is due to the typical recipe annoyance of needing only a certain amount out of a jar/can. Like what else am I going to do with the rest of it? So just threw it all in.

The caponata seemed more like a side/appetizer item so figured that something else would be needed to complete the meal. Didn't necessarily want meat (insert Tina saying THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID here) so after some consideration decided that grilled cheese would do it. Came to that conclusion based on the standard combo you get from restaurants of tomato soup and grilled cheese. Figured the tomato paste within the caponata would hit that requirement. The caponata is served cold so the grilled cheese was a good counter to that as well. Plus really who doesn't love grilled cheese? I mean outside of vegans, lactose intolerant folks, and probably Tina's kids at any particular moment.  

No worries for you calorie counters out there for mine I used Sargento's sliced Tomato Basil Jack cheese (60 calories) and Healthy Life Italian bread (70 calories for two slices). The caponata itself was 120-140  calories for a cup of it. Overall was very easy to make as you'll see from the recipe and well worth the time.  Highly enjoyed it and would definitely make it again.

#foodieadventure,

Reef