Caponata is a traditional Italian dish of (mostly) cooked vegetables.  Sometimes it is served as a sauce or relish and sometimes as a salad.  This version adds marinated kale and raw tomatoes to roasted eggplant and green beans.  The ingredients added to flavor the dish — olives, capers and garlic — are the same.  And while this version is technically a salad, I find it goes best eaten on bread or pasta.

Wash 1 bunch of kale.  Remove the stems.  Spin the leaves dry and tear them into pieces.

In a large bowl, combine 2 T.  olive oil and 3 T. red wine vinegar plus 1/4 t. salt.  Mince 1-2 cloves of garlic and add to the dressing.  Add the kale and toss to combine.  Allow to sit for 30 minutes, tossing a few more times.

Dice 2 ripe tomatoes.  Pit and chop green olives to make 3 T.  Add both to the kale along with 3 T. capers then toss again.

Slice 1 medium or 2 small eggplant into 1/2″ thick slices, then cut into large cubes.  Combine 1 T. sesame oil and 1 T. soy sauce in a bowl and then toss the eggplant to coat.  (No, your Italian grandmother would not approve)

Arrange the eggplant in a single layer on a cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees.  When the cubes brown on the bottom stir them to flip and then cook until they are tender and browned on another side.

Trim 2 C. green beans and cut into pieces.  Trim and remove the seeds from 2-3 sweet peppers, then slice.  Trim and slice 1 onion.  Cut both the pepper and onion slices in half.

Saute the onions and peppers in 2 T. olive oil until tender, then add the green beans and cook for another 3-5 minutes until they are crisp-tender.

Allow the eggplant and sauteed vegetables to cool before tossing with the kale.