Caponata

There are certain recipes that, when I cook them, make me feel like wherever I'm cooking is home.  Caponata, an Italian eggplant dish that my grandmother used to cook all the time, falls into that category.  Though my grandmother was from Northern Italy (Trieste, to be exact), she loved to cook this Sicilian vegetable stew.  I guess she was ahead of the curve on pan-Italian cooking.  Served hot with pan-fried polenta or cold with a crusty piece of bread, caponata is one of my feel-good standbys, so today I'm going to share my grandmother's recipe with you all.  Now, being of the old school, my grandmother wasn't big on writing down recipes or measuring things, so it evolves a little bit every time I make it.  You should feel free to make it your own too.

You'll need:

Mushrooms and Polenta

Some of my favorite ladies came over for dinner tonight.  It was a hot, sunny day in Chicago, so I wanted to spend most of the day out, not cooking up something over-elaborate.  So, using only things I had in my cupboard, I whipped up a little meal of a mushroom-and-onion saute and herbed polenta.  It was simple, quick, and quite delicious (If I do say so myself).

Here's the final product: