Caponata alla Nigella

Today I'll give you a recipe for a sidedish. An Italian dish, and to be more specific a Sicilian one. This is a great recipe, adapted from the lovely Nigella Lawson. If you're not familiar with her, make sure you get to know her and her recipes!
Italian dishes always make me smile, they add a little sunshine to your dinner! So does this recipe, but I have to add, again, to buy good food! It makes the difference between a great dinner and a disappointed one. Taste is everything, and you DO want THAT don't you!?

What do you need:

1 eggplant, chopped

olive oil

sea salt and black pepper

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 can peeled tomatoes, chopped

1 tablespoon sugar

6 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon grated dark chocolate, I used Green & Black's

4 tablespoons capers

14 cup green olives

1 egg, hard boiled

Fry the eggplant in olive oil for a few minutes. When done, put them on a plate and sprinkle some sea salt over it. Add some new oil to the pan and fry the celery for a few minutes. Add it to eggplant (you see the beautiful color of the celery??? almost luminous!!).

Add some new oil to the pan and fry the onion until soft. Add the chopped tomatoes, some salt and pepper and bring it to a boil. Turn the heat to low and let it simmer for 10 minutes.

In another (small) pan heat the sugar and vinegar, add the chocolate, capers and olives.

Stir until the chocolate has melted, and add it to the tomatoes and onion mixture.

Let this simmer for 5 minutes more. Then add the eggplant and celery and give it another 15 minutes.

Serve the Caponata on a big plate, and add the hard boiled egg. Et voilá, this is the result:

This side dish goes very well with the chicken with lemon and garlic I posted earlier. But fish or lamb will go very well with it too!

Enjoy!

Potato Salad

Everybody needs at least one good recipe for potato salad, you can't survive the summer without! Lucky me, I've got three great recipes, an "unhealthy-but-sooo-good" one, a "healthy-but-also-almost-the-best" one, and the recipe I'm giving you today (the "definitely-not-the-average-salad"). And easy does it, cook, chop and mix!
Make this a couple of hours before dinner, keep it in the fridge and I promise you this recipe is gonna be a keeper for the rest of this summer!

Usually I don't measure the ingredients, and it's not that important in this salad. A little more or less, it still will taste yummylicious, so that's good news for the uncertain cooks among us!

The only thing that is important, is your choice of potatoes. Choose potatoes that will stay firm after cooking. Boil them, with the skin on, for 25 minutes and let them cool. It's easier to peel them when they have cooled off. A trick I use is an old, clean, towel. Rub the potato and the skin will go off easy and the potatoe won't break or fall apart. Cut them into not too small cubes.
In the meantime, boil 2 eggs for 10 minutes and let them cool.

In a bowl mix half a cup of sour cream with 4 tablespoons of the best olive oil you can get, one garlic (use a garlic press), some pepper and salt and give it a few stirs, just enough to get a smooth dressing.

Then it's time to chop chop!

What do you need:

green olives, capers, shallot, another clove of garlic, fire roasted red bell pepper, parsley and the boiled eggs.

Mix all the ingredients, put it in the fridge for at least 2 hours and here is the result:

When it's dinner time, put some meat on the grill like skewered beef (recipe will follow this week so stay tuned!), steak or whatever you're in the mood for and dinner is ready!

Enjoy!