This Easy Sicilian Pasta Is My Favorite Summer Dinner

I remember the first time I tried caponata, I was at a summer family party filled with all of my mom’s Italian relatives. My great aunt had made her famous caponata recipe and I did not hesitate to indulge in a huge helping. It magically contained all of my favorite Italian ingredients—capers, olives, vinegar, eggplant—and I could eat it by the spoonful.

Now, I’ve learned that caponata is a traditional Sicilian appetizer with plenty of variations and influences. It has a rich history and, like many pervasive Italian recipes, originated as food for the poor. Eggplant, being one of the most accessible ingredients, replaced the more expensive meat and fish from other versions. The sweet and sour sauce (known in Italian as agrodolce), was a simple way to flavor even the most bland vegetables.

It may have been food for the poor, but the flavor of caponata is rich. To me, it’s a delicate balance of all the best elements of Italian cuisine. I love the appetizer version, served cold or at room temperature and typically spread on bread or crackers, but sometimes I just need more. 

I wanted caponata to be the main character and the main meal. So, in classic Italian fashion, I turned it into pasta.

The Trick to Flavorful Caponata Pasta

When you make caponata, it sits in the refrigerator overnight so that the flavors meld, and it’s even better on the second or third day. I wanted to make sure my pasta version still achieved the deep, cohesive flavor of the traditional version. 

Roasting all of the vegetables together in an olive oil, vinegar, honey, and tomato paste mixture results in the same rich flavor profile. The recipe becomes really hands-off once you put the sheet pan in the oven, and your kitchen will start to smell like a Sicilian villa.

Variations on Caponata Pasta

Everyone and their Italian grandmother has their own way of making caponata and they are all correct. So feel free to play around with the ingredients for this pasta. 

I love the sharp and sweet flavor of red onion, but you could easily substitute white or yellow. Red wine vinegar can replace the traditional white wine vinegar. You can also use any fresh Italian herb like parsley or oregano in place of basil.

Quick Tips

• Evenly chop your vegetables: The eggplant, red onion, and red bell pepper are chopped small to ensure they cook evenly in the oven and have the most surface area to absorb flavor.
• Don’t oversalt: Olives and capers add a briny saltiness to the dish, so go light on the salt to start and then adjust.
• Don’t rinse your pasta: The natural starches from the pasta help the noodles cling to the sauce, and rinsing it removes them. 

Sicilian-Inspired Specialties

• Sicilian Skillet Chicken With Lemon, Olives, and Capers
• Sauteed Greens With Pine Nuts and Raisins
• Pesto alla Trapanese
• Classic Muffuletta
  

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Prepare the vegetables:

Add the eggplant, onion, bell pepper, and tomatoes to a half-sheet pan.

In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup white wine vinegar, honey, tomato paste, salt, pepper, and chili flakes. Pour the mixture over the vegetables and carefully mix until everything is coated. Spread evenly on the pan (some overlap is OK).

Roast and prepare the other ingredients:

Roast the vegetables until mostly tender, 50 minutes. 

While they’re baking, in the same small bowl as before, add 2 tablespoons olive oil, the garlic, green olives, and capers. Set aside.

Finish roasting:

Remove the pan from the oven and pour the garlic, green olives, and capers onto the vegetables. Use a spatula to mix everything and spread it back out on the pan. 

Put it back in the oven to bake until the vegetables are brown on the edges and the garlic is softened, another 15 to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta:

In the meantime, cook the pasta in salted water until al dente according to the instructions. Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water and drain (but do not rinse). Add the cooked pasta back to the pot.

Combine and serve:

Once the vegetables are done baking, scrape everything from the sheet pan into the pasta pot. Add the reserved pasta water, the remaining 2 tablespoons of white vinegar (optional, for a tarter flavor), and the fresh basil. Stir to combine and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Store leftover pasta in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Add a splash of water before reheating gently.

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