I Bought Caponata

I am a little ashamed and need to unburden myself; I bought caponata, in a jar. I can make it, I have made it, in fact I’ve posted a recipe for it on this blog; a slow cooker caponata. Writing a food blog comes with a certain amount of pressure (albeit internal) to make things rather than buy them ready made. My first introduction to caponata was probably about thirty years ago when I tried the canned variety from Progresso, and fell in love with it. I haven’t purchased it in a while, but here is how I came to buy several jars.

I do the bulk of my shopping at three grocery stores. I go to Whole Foods Market for fresh fish, cheese, bulk products, meat and other things I prefer to get there, like shampoo and skin care. I also go to Super Fresh and Acme depending on which is more convenient. This time of year I buy most of my produce at farmers’ markets, and I go to Costco about once a month for assorted other items. Recently the Super Fresh I go to has been getting a store re-set, which always means lots of discontinued products, and brought me to the shelf of Victoria products. I was in search of jarred pimentos for an upcoming post on pimento cheese, and sure enough they were very discounted, as were the jars of caponata. They were less than half price, so I couldn’t resist.

I wasn’t sure how good it would be, so I started with two jars. When I tried it I was pleasantly surprised, and on my next trip I looked around to make sure no one I knew was around, and I bought all the remaining jars. Now I am making my confession, and hoping that you not only won’t judge me too harshly, but that you’ll understand. I love caponata, and I love a bargain, it was serendipity. I have been eating it on top of Wasa bread for breakfast, and crackers as quick appetizer while I make dinner.

When you are one of those people who can be a bit obnoxious enthusiastic about sticking with whole foods, and using real ingredients it takes some rationalizing to deal with buying prepared and/or processed foods. I wouldn’t say that my jars of caponata are processed food, but some might. If you came to my house and did an audit you would find a number of things that could or would fall into the category of processed food. I have pasta, jarred marinara sauce, in my freezer are Chinese dumplings, wild salmon burgers from Costco, Pepperidge Farm puff pastry (though that’s been in there so long I’m not sure it’s still viable) Nutella, a few boxes of cereal and (horrors) a giant container of flavor blasted Goldfish (a favorite of my daughter’s though I’ve been know to partake). That may not be all, but that’s all I’m copping to for the moment. 

I cook a lot and I love cooking. I also get sick of cooking, or can’t get in the mood to cook what I’ve planned, or don’t want to eat what I have on hand. Sometimes I just want caponata on a cracker, or take-out Chinese food, brought to my door, saving me not only the cooking but the clean-up. Years ago I had a friend whose husband Greg was a serious cook and she confessed that if it weren’t for Greg she’d happily eat a bowl of cereal for dinner every night. I don’t like cereal, or milk, and the idea of eating the same thing every night seems like punishment to me, but sometimes no matter how much you love to cook, you just can’t be bothered.

If I had been craving caponata I could have made it, but I wasn’t. The jars appeared followed by the desire. Homemade caponata is truly superior to jarred or canned in almost every way, but it is summer and I like the idea of those little jars sitting in my pantry for the time when I am tired or lazy, or want something NOW. As my dad would have said “It could be worse” in the pantheon of canned and jarred food my caponata is more of a misdemeanor than a felony. Having confessed eases my shame a bit, I’m not sorry I bought that caponata and I would do it again!