How to Make Giada's Caponata Picnic Sandwiches | Food Network

My caponata sandwiches give your outing a taste of Italy. Two slices of toasted ciabatta are filled with delicious caponata, eggplant mixed with vegetables and herbs. A slice of fresh mozzarella adds a feathery, moist finish. Caponata picnic sandwiches are delicious. There are a few ingredients in caponata, and that's what I love about it, because each bite could have a different flavor and texture to it. So, there's a little bit of chopping and just a 20 minute simmer, but I'm telling you're going to end up with a great vegetable relish. So, first thing, heat up my pan and put a little olive oil, and we're going to start with our celery. And we just need one stalk. And we're just going to cook this off for a couple minutes, and while this cooks, I'm going to dice the rest of the vegetables. Give it a nice, rough chop here. We'll start that for a couple minutes. Now, the eggplant. And the eggplant's really the feature of this dish. In the fishing villages of Sicily, they have taverns called capone. And it's believed that this dish, caponata, got its name from those taverns. In Sicily and Sardinia, they like to top their caponata with octopus or lobster. But I'm having a picnic today, so I'm going to be making sandwiches. And you know what? This is a dish where you don't have to salt the eggplant, because the sautéing and the simmering will take care of any of the bitterness that it might have. So that's one last step. And I happen to love the texture of the skin on the eggplant, but you could always peel it if you didn't like that flavor, that texture. We're ready to add our eggplant. A little bit of salt, helps sauté the vegetables. And another thing, I like to use a non-stick pan for this dish. That way, I don't have to drench it with oil, because the eggplant will absorb a lot of oil and it'll become really oily. So the non-stick pan helps with that. Just going to take this red bell pepper. You could use orange, green, or yellow bell peppers, but I like the vibrant color of the red peppers. And I know that they seem like pretty big dices, the eggplant and all these vegetables, but they will cook down. Little bit more salt. I can already start to smell the eggplant cooking. The eggplant absorbs the oil and all the flavors of the other vegetables, and it's so rich. It's so delicious. Okay, some onion, of course. Sweetness. And the onion will sort of melt into this dish, so it makes it another wonderful flavor. Italians love to eat outside, and it's known as al fresco dining. But the idea of putting a blanket down and everybody sitting on the ground is an American tradition. So I'm going to take my Italian food and eat it American style. There we go. Now you know what? In Sicily, they have a lot of different variations of this dish. And sometimes they add anchovies, and sometimes they add basil and different herbs. This is the way that my family made it. This is the way I like to make it. But you could do any of those variations, just like you could use any bell peppers you wanted to. I'm just going to use some canned tomatoes and some oregano, which is classic in this dish. Some dried oregano, sort of a woodsy flavor, and it makes this dish hearty. That's enough oregano. And some raisins. We'll just add about three tablespoons. Again, classic in this dish. Little sweetness. And they'll plump up as all the vegetables release their juices. The raisins will suck up all that liquid, and they'll plump up and be great. So I'm going to let this dish simmer for about 20 minutes. All the flavors will meld together, and the sauce will start to thicken. Let me add a little bit more salt, and some freshly ground black pepper. And I like the way the vegetables absorb the salt and the pepper as they're cooking. It's going to add even more flavor to the relish. So my caponata has been simmering for about 20 minutes. Now what it needs is some vinegar. Now this is what makes it sour. The sweetness came from the raisins, and we're going to add a little sugar also to offset the acidity from the vinegar. So we'll add red wine vinegar. It's still pretty light. It's not like balsamic that's a strong flavor. It's a light vinegar, so it works really well with these vegetables. And a couple tablespoons of sugar. Sweet and sour. This is going to turn into a great sandwich. And for some tang, some capers. There we are. They're a nice tangy flavor, a little hint of green. So we'll toss those in. So my caponata has cooled completely, and I'm ready to grill my bread. And I'm using some ciabatta. And what I love about it is its crunchy exterior and meaty and chewy interior. But we're going to grill it just so it has a nice grilled flavor, and that way it's crunchy. I bite into it, and the mozzarella from the heat of the bread will slowly start to melt With the caponata, it's divine. I'm just going to open them up, and then we're going to rub them with garlic. Ciabatta actually means slipper or shoe, because it's wide and flat. My mozzarella's sliced, ready to go. Now let's check on our bread. Perfect. Got some grill marks. It's nice and toasted. So now I'm going to rub the garlic on it. It's important to have hot bread, or else you'll struggle with the garlic. Okay, a little bit on that one, and a little bit on this one. Okay, that's ready. So now, we'll do a slice of mozzarella, and a spoonful of our cooled caponata. With the eggplant and the peppers, the onions, the celery, capers, and raisins. Wow, look at that. Crusty bread, and the warmth of the bread is starting to melt the mozzarella, and warming up the caponata. Alright, I'm ready to assemble the rest of my sandwiches, and take them to the picnic.