Sicily’s famous sweet-and-sour relish may be most associated with eggplant—it is the main ingredient—but when I was learning to make Caponata, my teacher Giacomo reprimanded me for not giving the celery its due. I didn’t take it personally. One of the main ways I have learned about traditional cooking in Sicily (and everywhere else in Italy) has been through being shamed about not knowing the exact way to make something according to that particular family’s traditions. Celery delivers so much more flavor and structure to the caponata than the eggplant, so I was listening. Next, he admonished me for using too much tomato, which he told me was a recent addition dating back only a century and a half, at most. And he had read a theory that the original recipe featured fish and that eggplant was used as a substitute by peasants (not unlike in the Melanzane a Quaglia recipe, giving us the now common eggplant version. This recipe uses very little tomato, relying on vinegar for an acidic note. I prepare caponata at least a day ahead to ensure all the flavors have married and mellowed.