One of my favorite ingredients — whether sprinkled on pizza, tossed into a salad or paired with olive oil and lemon to adorn grilled fish — is capers.
Slightly sweet, mostly salty with a tangy bite, capers add a bright note to many dishes. Capers are the unopened flower buds of bushy plants that cling to stone walls or are cultivated close to the ground.
On the tiny Italian island of Pantelleria, off the coast of Sicily just 36 miles from the coast of North Africa, the volcanic soil and Mediterranean sun produce high-quality capers prized for their flavor.
“They are the best capers, and I like them because they are cured in salt and not pickled,” said chef Piero Premoli of Pricci restaurant in Atlanta. Premoli is featuring a menu of Sicilian dishes throughout October including a cured tuna with capers and the region’s classic caponata stew with eggplant and capers.
Pleasures of Pantelleria
If you haven’t been to Pantelleria or even heard of it, join the club. I was invited by a nonprofit food and nutrition organization called Oldways Preservation and Exchange Trust to join a group of writers and culinary experts for a symposium to discover the island’s uniquely healthy food and lifestyle habits.
The rocky island is pummeled by the wind, forcing olive trees, grapevines and caper bushes to lie low and grow outward not upward. Citrus trees are cradled in walled gardens to protect the fruit.
“There’s still a little magic out there,” said Phil Meldrum of Food Match, a specialty foods importer attending the symposium. “When you find something with a taste only from that particular area, it gives me goose bumps.”
Stone walls, stone buildings and piles of stone create a harsh landscape surrounded by the crashing sea. Minimal rain means cactus blooms and bougainvillea blooms offer the only color.
“It was frozen in time,” said dietitian Sharon Palmer, author of “The Plant Powered Diet.” “We had very little red meat. It’s primarily a plant-based diet that’s nutritionally really balanced with carbs from pastas, healthy fats from almonds, olives and olive oil and dishes flavored with herbs, fennel and capers.” Other common cooking ingredients included eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes.
Even though there is a tradition of sweet cookies made in intricate patterns and shapes, the principal sweetener is made from reducing grape juice, not refined sugar.
Mediterranean medicine
The health benefits of the Mediterranean diet — rich in vegetables, legumes, grains, nuts, seafood and olive oil — are well documented.
Dietitian Kathy McManus, director of the Department of Nutrition at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, said, “Since this diet is not low in fat, people enjoy the foods more, lose more weight, and they tend to eat more vegetables because they can add olive oil.”
The Mediterranean lifestyle leads to longevity, too.
“We want an active life in old age, not frailty,” said Dr. Ligia Dominguez of the University of Palermo in Italy. “The Mediterranean diet is high in antioxidants, which can add years to your life and life to your years.”
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