Bentornati to the new La Panza Piena endeavour, the Italy Deep Dive, a food, wine & recipe travel guide shash discovery of traditional Italian products—I really need to come up with a more succinct description.
Take your seat & pack a snack for the bi-monthly newsletter that dives into Italy’s history and food culture by unpacking, eating, drinking and cooking a town at the time.
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This week I’m taking you on a refreshing break from the heat, full of relaxing walks, paddles in crystal clear waters and crudi di mare platters—you’re welcome. Join me in Salina, the greenest - and my favorite - of the Eolian Islands, an archipelago of volcanic islands in the north of Sicily.
Let’s Dive
Unlike the rest of the Eolie, Salina has multiple tiny towns dotted around it, each with its little gems to uncover. The few beaches are formed by black sand, and meticulously positioned black and volcanic rocks constitute the muretti a secco - walls - surrounding each home. Thanks to the two tall peaks Salina has - now extinguished craters - there is plenty of rainfall and water storage, making agriculture thrive. Fruit trees, olive groves, bountiful vegetable gardens and vineyards are just some of the cultivations you come across on the islands. Which brings me to Salina’s specialty, an ingredient that grows on short, thick stubs whose leaves wind up and down walls and adorne the island’s homes: capperi.
A plant known for its remarkable adaptational qualities, which requires very little water to thrive, just a combination of heat and salinity within the air. The caper’s harvest, during which the buds are manually picked, takes place every 10 days between May and August. Once collected, the buds are placed on large jute mats to dry in a cool place, which prevents them from flowering. The producers then patiently and skilfully place them in wooden casks, alternating a layer of capers with one of rock salt, preserving them for two or three years to come. The salt not only acts as a natural preserving agent, it decreases the fresh caper’s natural bitterness. The buds are however not left to sit in salt for years, but moved from one container to the next often, over a period of three months, preventing any spontaneous fermentation the combination of salt and heat might cause.
Salina’s capperi are used in almost every Sicilian recipe: their addition boosting the dish’s flavour and decisive character, as well as adding natural sapidity. Traditional recipes require you to soak the capers in room temperature water for at least 12 hours, changing the water up to 3 times. If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably realize you need capers 10 minutes before using them, so a thorough rinse-through works just fine!
Before delving into where to eat and shop in Salina, I wanted to share a delicious, unique product made with capers I discovered thanks to a good friend: capperi caramellati, caramelized capers. Wonderful on fiordilatte ice cream or yoghurt (or even eaten by themselves, as candy). You can buy the caramelized capers here or, in Milan, at Terroir.