A Bud To Love -- Pricey, Piquant Capers Grow Wild And Tamed Throughout The Mediterranean

It was a sunny spring morning on Salina, a lush and mountainous volcanic island off the coast of Sicily, when Nino Caravaglio met me at the hydrofoil dock. Dressed in rumpled brown cords and a blue sweater, Caravaglio, 34, looked weary. As it turned out, he had a lot on his mind. His wedding was only three days away. With the annual caper harvest approaching, there would be just enough time for a week's honeymoon to Palermo and Siracusa before he had to be back to oversee the delicate picking of the prized bushes that have been in his family for generations.

The pricey, piquant green morsels packed in tiny bottles and sold here in grocery stores and gourmet shops start out as flower buds from bushes that grow throughout the Mediterranean. Some of the world's best are cultivated on Salina, a tiny island formed from twin volcanoes, part of an archipelago called the Aeolians off Sicily's northern coast. Blessed with fertile soil fed by natural springs, Salina's growing conditions are ideal, and many of the island's 3,000 residents are involved in the caper industry.

Spotting a caper plant takes practice, but the locals are always happy to help out. "Capperi! Capperi!" a woman sitting next to me on a bus shouted in Italian one day, pointing out the window to low-lying green bushes glistening in the afternoon sunlight after a heavy rain.

Caper bushes grow about a foot and a half tall and two or three feet in diameter. When in bloom, the flower is a delicate spray of white and lilac, but the prize for caper producers like Caravaglio is the tightly-closed bud that must be plucked before it opens.

"The capers from Salina are very rosy on top. When looking at quality, that's an indication that they were grown in volcanic soil and have a really distinct flavor," said Ed Valenzuela, general manager of Manicaretti Italian Foods, an Oakland, California-based food importer. The company discovered Caravaglio two years ago and began distributing his organically-grown capers in the United States to restaurants, gourmet shops, catalog retailers and specialty stores including Larry's Markets and Cucina Fresca in Seattle.

Harvested about once a week between May and the end of August, Caravaglio's capers are handpicked, cured in sea salt to remove bitterness, aged for about two months, then packed in jars at a tiny factory the size of a garage near his family home on Salina.

For Caravaglio and other Sicilian producers, the difference comes in curing and dry-packing the capers in sea salt rather than the usual vinegar or brine-packing. The process brings out an intense floral flavor and preserves a firm texture. Plump, salt-packed capers can last for years, and be purchased in large plastic bags in villages all over Sicily for a few dollars. For export, Caravaglio offers a choice: capers packed either in salt, used mainly for cooking, or extra virgin olive oil, ideal for mixing into an antipasto or salad.

Touted for their medicinal qualities, capers have been promoted as an appetite stimulant, aphrodisiac and diuretic. They are used in all sorts of dishes in Europe, often cooked with olives, eggplants and tomatoes. Sicilian cooks have a knack for combining what grows in abundance: a simple pesto sauce, for instance, is made by combining the zest of a lemon with a few tablespoons of juice, olive oil, parsley, raisins, shallots and capers.

Capers turn up in fresh tomato and cauliflower salads dressed with extra-virgin olive oil. They are married with oil and lemon juice for flavoring fish, and sprinkled in tomato-based pasta sauces. Capers are a key ingredient in caponata, a traditional eggplant-based stew, served cold or at room temperature as a side dish or part of an antipasti selection. At Gangivecchio, a 14th-century abbey reincarnated as a family-run inn and restaurant in Sicily's inland Madonie mountains, owners Wanda and Giovanna Tornabene make a caponata for their guests that includes fried eggplant cooked with tomato sauce, sauteed onion, capers, chopped celery, anchovies, green olives and sugar.

A sauce made from chopped tomatoes, onion, garlic, white wine and capers is excellent on baked fish. At the Pensione Tranchina, a family-run seaside inn about 45 minutes from Palermo, owners Marisin and Salvadore Tranchina treat their guests to thick slabs of fresh swordfish topped with this sauce. "Remember, Sicilian capers are strong," Marisin warned me. "You only need a few."

Salt-packed capers should be thoroughly rinsed in water. If that doesn't take away the saltiness, Faith Heller Willinger, author of "Red, White & Greens: The Italian Way with Vegetables," advises soaking them for 15 minutes.

After visiting growers on Salina and Pantelleria, another caper-producing Sicilian island closer to the Tunisian coast, Willinger discovered that one of her favorite ways to use capers is by pureeing them with chili peppers or sun-dried tomatoes to create a rich, dark paste. Sicilians like to spread the mixture on bread, thin it with olive oil and brush it on grilled fish, or drop a dollop or two in tomato sauce for extra kick.

Caponata

This recipe is from "La Cucina Siciliana di Gangivecchio," a cookbook of Sicilian family recipes by Wanda and Giovanna Tornabene.

Makes 1 1/2 quarts

3 large eggplants Salt Olive oil 1 large onion, chopped 3 cups tomato sauce

3/4 cup pitted green olives, Sicilian if possible

1/2 cup capers 1 cup thinly sliced hearts of celery, including 2 tablespoons chopped leaves 5 anchovy filets, finely chopped

1/2 cup red-wine vinegar, or to taste 1 tablespoon sugar, or to taste Salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Remove stems of eggplant. Cut into 1-inch cubes. Sprinkle lightly with salt and place in a colander with a weight on top. Set aside for about a half hour. Squeeze the eggplant cubes to remove excess water, rinse and pat dry with paper towels.

2. Heat 1/2 inch olive oil in a large frying pan and cook the eggplant in batches until soft and golden brown. Remove with slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Add extra oil to the pan as needed.

3. In a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat 1/2 cup oil and cook the onion for 5 minutes, stirring often. Add the remaining ingredients and the drained eggplant. Combine gently but thoroughly, and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes. Taste for seasoning. The caponata should have a pleasant sweet-and-sour flavor.

4. Transfer to a large bowl and let cool. Serve room temperature or cover and refrigerate overnight and serve cold. The flavor improves as it marinates.