A good olive oil is one of the most important ingredients when making Pien's recipes. Pien once learned that you should just taste olive oil from a spoon: if you like it, you will like it in all your dishes. The olive oil that Pien really likes and likes to use is TOPIKÁ Intense , made from olives from her own family orchards on Crete. It is soft, tasty and not bitter, and therefore beautifully subtle. You can use it wonderfully pure in recipes, as Pien does in this (non-traditional) caponata.

For 4 persons:

• 2 eggplants, diced
• 2 onions, diced
• 70 g tomato puree
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 stalk celery, finely chopped
• 1 can tomatoes, 400 g
• 50 g green olives, pitted and halved
• 30 g capers
• 25 g raisins, soaked in water for 10 min
• 30 g pine nuts, roasted
• Handful of basil
• 200-300 g stracciatella
  
• TOPIKA Intense
• Salt, pepper

Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
2. Put the sliced ​​eggplant in a colander and sprinkle generously with salt. Let this sit for half an hour, so that the moisture comes out of the eggplant well. Then rinse and pat dry very well.
3. Place the cubes in a baking dish. Sprinkle with olive oil and add some pepper. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes, stirring the aubergine halfway through.
4. Mix the tomato puree with the vinegar and sugar.
5. Heat a dash of olive oil in a pan. Add the onions and celery. Fry for 5 minutes.
6. Add the tomato puree and let it brown nicely. Then add the canned tomatoes. Let this stew for at least 10 minutes.
7. Then add the olives, capers, soaked raisins and toasted pine nuts. Finally add the aubergine from the oven and some basil. Remove the pan from the heat and let it cool.
8. Divide the caponata over the plates or on a platter. Top with stracciatella, pepper and of course a delicious dash of olive oil. Serve with crusty bread and enjoy!!