Summer of recipes from Tudor Park: Sicilian Caponata

Bored with your office lunch? Does a sandwich leave you feeling bloated or tired in the afternoon? Tudor Park’s new Executive Head Chef Alfonso Salvaggio has put together a selection of packed lunch ideas that will stimulate the taste buds as well as the brain cells.

Alfonso (pictured left) and his 13-strong team of chefs are experienced in creating beautiful buffets for business lunches, meetings and conferences that help energise as well as being delicious.

Throughout the summer, the four-star Tudor Park Marriott Hotel & Country Club in Bearsted, near Maidstone, Kent, has been ringing the changes on business meetings by offering an outdoor experience – weather permitting – and a picnic hamper of salads and light bites that beats being stuck in the boardroom hands down!

Some of those dishes have been recreated for readers of PA Life, so you too can give your lunch break a summer makeover. In part three of our summer lunchbox of recipes, Alfonso takes inspiration from his Sicilian roots.

Sicilian Caponata
Four servings
2 aubergines
2 yellow peppers
1 punnet of cherry tomatoes
2 sticks of celery
2 courgettes
a bunch of spring onions
1 tab of green olives
1 tab capers
1 tab raisins
1 tab toasted pine nuts
Handful of fresh basil
1 clove of garlic, finely sliced
Sunflower oil for frying

For the dressing:
250ml extra virgin olive oil
100ml red wine vinegar
1 tab clear honey
Pepper and salt

Method:

• Prepare all the ingredients first – dice the aubergine, pepper and courgette into 2cm pieces. Thinly slice the celery and spring onions. Slice the olives and halve the tomatoes.
• Make the dressing by combining all the ingredients in a screw-topped jar. Pop on the lid and give it a good shake.
• In a large frying pan, begin by frying the aubergine for a few minutes in a little sunflower oil, then add the pepper, celery, spring onion, courgette and garlic.
• When the vegetables are soft but still keeping their shape, stir in the raisins, pine nuts, olives and capers. Heat through, then add the basil before removing from the heat. Pour over the dressing while still hot.

Chef’s tip: This is delicious eaten hot as an accompaniment to barbecued meat or grilled fish, or used as a topping for Bruschetta – just pile onto slices of grilled Ciabatta bread. Leave to cool and it is a perfect lunchbox salad.