Dora is the head chef at Rocca Delle Tre Contrade, an elegant villa encircled by lemon groves, standing on a hill between the Ionian Sea and Mount Etna, where Iska spent a summer cooking with her. Dora is well under five feet tall, her perfectly fluffed hair adding an inch or two. She wears little heeled sandals while cooking and commands her kitchen with a booming, husky voice.
She serves four immaculate courses every evening for 24 adoring guests, twisting spaghetti alla vongole in a ladle and onto plates, lifting the weight of a whole suckling pig from the oven and carving like a master butcher. She measures everything by hand, seasons with abandon and tastes constantly until she is happy. She frequents the fish market in Giarre at 7 a.m., where they fear her, for she can be satisfied with only the freshest, finest fish.
Her dishes are intrinsically Sicilian with modern flourishes. This caponata – sweet and sour in equal measure, sticky with a varnish of olive oil – is served once a week as an aperitivo and devoured by the guests. It’s best served warm but is also delicious cold from the fridge the next day, when the flavours have deepened. Dora uses a deep-fat fryer to brown all the peppers and aubergines before they’re added. You can simply brown in olive oil.
Nona Dora’s Sicilian Caponata
(Feeds 6–8)
Ingredients
2 celery stalks, cut into ½cm crescents
3 aubergines, peeled and cut into 2cm cubes
3 red peppers, deseeded and cut into 2cm cubes
olive oil, for frying
½ onion, roughly diced
1 tbsp capers
100g pitted green olives, roughly chopped
3 basil stalks with the leaves on, plus more to serve
1½ tbsp sugar
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp salt
toasted pine nuts, to serve
Method
Put a pan of water on to boil and blanch the celery for 3–4 minutes to soften. Drain and set aside.
If you have a deep fryer, set it up for the aubergines and peppers. Deep fry in batches until browned and sticky-looking, then set aside. Alternatively, cook them in batches of olive oil.
In a sauté pan fry the onion until starting to brown. Add the capers, olives and blanched celery, and fry in the oil some more.
Add the fried aubergine and peppers and the basil to the pan. Stir in the sugar, red wine vinegar and salt. Continue to cook for about 10 minutes then turn off the heat, put the lid on and leave for a few minutes to allow the flavours to meld in the residual heat.
Serve warm on toasted bread with pine nuts and torn basil on top.