Quick Roasted Eggplant Caponata

This dip is a slight tweak on Ina Garten's recipe. It gets better each day, so make it it one or two days in advance for optimum flavor, but I had some each day for four days and it was good even from the start--but definitely rocked the flavor on day 3 and 4! Roasting the eggplant whole is easy and using the food processor makes this extra quick to prepare.

• 1 large eggplant
• olive oil
• 2/3 jar of roasted red peppers, chopped 
• 1/2 C large green olives, chopped (martini olives work fine)
• 1 C. yellow onion
• 1/8 t. red pepper flakes
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 T. minced parsely
• 2 T. almonds, chopped and toasted 
• 2 T. lemon juice
• 2 T. tomato paste
• 1 T. red wine vinegar
• 2 t. kosher salt
• 1 1/2 t.  ground black pepper

Crackers, toasted pita triangles or pita chips, or endive are all great dippers.

Heat oven to 400*.  Place the whole eggplant on a foil line baking sheet.; prick with a fork several times and rub it down with olive oil. Roast for 45-50 minutes, until soft when pierced with a knife. Let cool, then halve and peel eggplant discarding skin. Place eggplant, chopped red peppers and olives in food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped, then pour into another bowl.

Heat 1 T. olive oil in a medium pan. Add onion and pepper flakes cooking over medium heat for 5 minutes til onion is slightly browned. Add garlic, cook 1 minute and add to eggplant mixture. Add parsley, nuts, lemon juice, tomato paste, vinegar, slat and pepper and mix with a spoon. Cover with wrap and refrigerate a few hours (at least) for flavors to marry.

Serve with dipper of choice. YUM!