Recipe Anna Jones, Photography Matt Russell
Serves 4
Caponata is a masterclass in balancing sweet, sour and salty. It’s most often made with eggplant, which you have to fry in lots of olive oil first, making it less of a weeknight situation. This buttery cauliflower version is all done in the oven and to me it’s just as good as the eggplant version. It has the texture of a stew and can be eaten warm as an antipasto, as is most common in Italy, or on toast or tossed through pasta.
Ingredients
1x kilogram cauliflower, broken into roughly 4cm florets
3 red onions (350 grams), peeled and cut into eighths
3 sticks of celery, cut into 2cm pieces
Extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 x 400 grams tins plum tomatoes
100 grams stone-in green or black olives, stones removed (I use a mixture of both)
3 tablespoons capers
50 grams raisins
½ a bunch of parsley, leaves picked
Warm bread, to serve
Method
Preheat the oven and roast the cauliflower
Preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan bake. Put the cauliflower, red onions, and celery into a large, high-sided baking tray with a tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar and a little sea salt and ground pepper. Toss to coat, then roast for 25 minutes, until everything is slightly charred and starting to soften. Turn the oven down to 200°C/180°C fan bake.
Add the rest
Add the tins of plum tomatoes, breaking them in your hands as you do so, along with the olives (stones removed), capers and raisins. Give everything a good mix, mashing slightly with a fork, and return to the oven for 40 minutes, or until everything is soft and sticky.
Finish with the vinegar and oil
Once ready, and while the mix is still piping hot, add another tablespoon of vinegar, toss through a handful of parsley leaves and serve. Finish with a very generous dousing of extra-virgin olive oil to bring it all together.
This is an edited extract from Easy Wins by Anna Jones. Photography Matt Russell. HarperCollins, $60.
