Caper plants are hearty survivors. They are difficult to cultivate but they grow wild everywhere in the Italian islands, thriving in unlikely places like crevices, attached high up on brick walls, or other stony areas, seemingly in the absence of soil or nutrients. Pantelleria is a major producer of capers, where farmers have learned to successfully plant them on terraced fields that follow the craggy volcanic terrain, growing massive caper bushes. Islanders mostly eat the plant’s flower buds (capers) and fruit (caper berries), but La Nicchia, Pantelleria’s premier producer of quality capers since 1949, has recently started picking and pickling the caper leaves, too. The leaves taste just like capers and make a great protagonist or accent in a salad.
I visited the farmers who supply La Nicchia one very hot August morning. It was 10am and they were about to end their shift, which had started before 6am. Pantelleria is swept by harsh and hot winds that blow from the Sahara dessert. You can imagine what that feels like at high noon. As they worked, they snapped each leaf into a bucket for future salting to draw out its bitterness (DO NOT taste a caper leaf off the plant unless you love tanin). You can certainly harvest and facto-ferment caper leaves yourself (recipe in Food of the Italian Islands) but it’s easier to buy them from La Nicchia in Scauri, Pantelleria or snag them online from Gustiamo.
Insalata di Foglie di Cappero | Caper Leaf Salad
Serves 4 to 6
½ pound store bought pickled caper leaves
¼ cup capers, rinsed
6 ripe tomatoes, sliced into wedges
Sea salt
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Combine the caper leaves, capers, and tomatoes in a large bowl. Season with salt and toss with the vinegar and olive oil. Serve.
Recipe adapted from Food of the Italian Islands.
