Sicily is one of the most historical places I have ever visited. So many civilizations settled there over the centuries, leaving – amongst other things- the most amazing culinary heritage. A lot of the food there reminded me of my mother’s country, Morocco, and more specifically, the city of Fez. I couldn’t believe how similar their pastries “dolci sicilliani” were to my maternal grandmother’s. Looking into it further, I realized that the cities of Granada in Spain, Fez in Morocco, Palermo in Sicily, Tlemcen in Algeria were all part of al-Andalus, ie Andalusian cities, where language and culinary traditions were very similar. Anyway, all this to say… that this dish is inspired by Sicily. I absolutely love it. It is very easy to make, PALEO, DAIRY-FREE, and a wonderful side to roast chicken, baked white fish, served with salads if you make a barbecue during the summer or quinoa if you want to stick to vegetable options.
Ingredients
- 2 large eggplants
- 1 onion
- 4 tomatoes
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 tablespoons of chopped basil
- 2 tablespoons of chopped mint
- 1/3 cup or 50g of pine nuts
- about 20 black olives
- 1 tablespoon of capers
- olive oil
- salt, pepper
Directions
- Chop the eggplants in medium-sized cubes. Put it to sweat in a large pan with olive oil on medium heat.
- Chop your onion finely and crush the garlic cloves.
- After 5 minutes of cooking or when the eggplants look like they are starting to soften, add onion and garlic.
- Chop the herbs finely and the tomatoes roughly.
- Once the onions and eggplants have browned, add tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Let it cook on medium heat and cover the pan for about 5 minutes.
- Add the herbs, capers, and olives and cover for another 5 minutes.
- In the meantime, a separate pan, toast your pine kernels. As soon as they start changing color, turn the heat off and let them finish toasting in the hot pan with the heat off.
- Add the pine kernels to the eggplants, cook for another minute, mixing them in. It is ready! Enjoy!
