The
flower bud of the caper plant has been used as food for a long time, it
was already mentioned in the Bible, in greek and latin classical
literature and there were also references of its use as a medicine
or a cosmetic. But its main use has always been as food. The buds are
picked from plants which either grew spontaneosuly or have been cultivated.
The caper is used as a condiment (garniture).
The capers of Pantelleria are of the highest quality. The gastronomic
tradition identifies the capers of Pantelleria as the best. The capers are
characterized by some vitamins (tiamina, etc) and the glucocapparina which
gives it the aroma. The techniques of how the caper is handled after being
picked contributes to the high quality of the product. Once the caper is
picked, it carefully cleaned from leaves, earth, peduncles, and carefully
divided according to the different sizes. The capers are kept under salt
to preserve the strong aroma. After this, there are two phases. The first
is set in the farm: the peasant, after finishing the picking, places the
capers in special brick containers and covers them with sea salt. The salt
dissolves because of the waters in the capers and so it forms a kind of
pickle, in which it is immerged for 7 – 8 days. The capers are then
drained from the pickled water and salted again. The process is repeated
several times. The second phase is set in a co-operative, where the capers
are divided according to the calibers (sizes) thanks to special machines
and then preserved under sea-salt in the percentage of 15%. |