Recipe Source: I first tasted this dish as an antipasti in Marinella, Sicily on 18th May 2005. It's a typical Sicilian mixed vegetable dish which I had twice in Sicily and both times it was served cold, although I think it would be just as good when served hot. The second time I had it was at Mount Etna, but this time it was served in a toasted bread roll with a thick grilled Sicilian sausage, a slice of grilled fresh (young) peppered pecorino, some deep golden brown fried onions, marinated mushrooms and fresh tomato slices which had been sitting in olive oil and herbs. The toasted roll was way too full to close with all these tasty goodies packed in, but it was one of the best sausage rolls I've ever had!

This dish was good as an antipasti, but I thought it was at its best along side grilled meat or sausage. I wasn't able to get a written recipe for this dish, but I did get a relatively detailed explanation of how it's made of the family in Marinella that cooked it the first time I tried it. For those of you that have cooked ratatouille before, it should be fairly straightforward.

Serves ???

Ingredients
Mixed vegetables - use the type of vegetables that go in ratatouille, such as eggplant (aubergine), zucchini, capsicums (peppers), celery, etc...
Olive oil
Fresh tomatoes (if they're in season), or tomato puree
Salted capers, rinsed to remove the salt
Vinegar
Sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

Method
Dice the vegetables into about 1cm (½in) cubes. Place the vegetables in a deep pan, or a wide pot, with some tomatoes, a generous amount of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Simmer the vegetables, stirring often, until they're tender. Turn the heat up and add a good sprinkle of vinegar, the capers and a sprinkle of sugar, and stir for a minute or two. Taste for seasoning. Serve hot or cold.

Notes: The recipe I've give above is exactly how it was explained to me in Marinella. The second time I had this dish it tasted slightly different. I think the difference was that the vegetables were browned in the olive oil with salt and pepper before the tomato was added. In my opinion this is a better way to cook the dish.

With reference to the amount of tomato to use, this is obviously the ingredient which makes the sauce that the vegetables end up in. This dish had much less sauce than most ratatouilles, so be careful not to over do it with the tomato. The final product should be mixed vegetables with a glaze of tomato sauce, not a pot of tomato soup with floating vegetables.