Summer is the time in Tuscany for picking and brining capers. Traveling around Tuscany in the summer, you see the bushes growing wild on the old walls of cities, towns and ancient buildings. They’re free for the picking, provided you have a ladder tall enough. Capers are widely used in Tuscan cuisine to give a bright flavor to simple dishes like baked chicken or salsa verde, and the preserved caper berries, with their long stems, are excellent with aperitivi at the end of the day.
Capers are actually the buds of the flower of the caper bush and are picked before they can open.
If left alone to grow, the flower will open and then fall off, leaving a caper berry that grows in its turn on a long stem. If you look closely at a single branch of the caper bush, it’s possible to see all stages of the caper’s growth: small, new capers on the end of the branch, the flowers blooming in the middle and the caper berries from old flowers hanging on their stems farther up the branch.
Another excellent example of the hidden health benefits of the Mediterranean diet, capers are a good source of the mineral selenium and have a high concentration of the antioxidants rutin and quercetin.
Typically in Tuscany we brine, or pickle, the capers and their berries with salt and vinegar, but in Sicily they are cured by covering them in sea salt from Trapani. These are usually smaller and have a finer flavor, so if you ever see them in the store or on your travels, buy them, and be sure to rinse them well before using.
Most white meats such as veal, chicken or turkey go beautifully with capers, but I like them best in the summer with fish. “Piccata” is a typical Italian dish featuring capers as a main component in a lemon butter sauce and can be used with skate as well as chicken. It’s light and easy to cook, quick and fresh at the end of a long hot day. Capers are a key ingredient in Napolitano pasta puttanesca and are paired frequently with salted anchovies. Mixing capers with sun dried tomatoes and parsley is very fresh and summery and makes a flavorful salsa that goes great with any fatty fish like tuna or halibut or little fried fresh anchovies. It’s the heart and soul of Italy in the hot summer sun!
½ cup capers, drained
½ cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes, packed in olive oil
¼ cup chopped purple onion
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
Extra virgin olive oil
zest of lemon or orange
Mix together and serve at room temperature with grilled or pan-fried tuna or halibut. Or dredge some fresh anchovies or sardines in flour and salt, fry them quickly in hot oil and top with this amazing salsa. Buon Appetito!