What do know Capers Spanish, Mediterranean plate

Considering their minuscule size, moist and teasingly bitter-sharp bronze capers offer outsize wallops of flavor and equally astounding amounts of botanical and cultural lore—a lot of baggage indeed for what is merely a piquant condiment. These tiny buds of the Capparis spinosa plant have been prized since ancient Greece and flourish in stony, dry-as-dust landscapes, most notably in southern Spain; on a small island 85 kilometers from Sicily, called Pantelleria; and on the Greek island of Cyprus. Because they thrive in such adverse conditions—they even bloom in airborne bushes in Roman ruins and the Western Wall in Jerusalem!—the frilly, mauve-white caper flowers were made the symbol of Neot Kedumim, a sprawling biblical heritage botanical park close to Ben Gurion Airport in Israel. 

Capers may be hardy, but they are near hell to harvest. The bushes grow low to the ground, with long, splayed branches. On each is a progression of the caper buds, the largest (and most prized) at the tip, and smaller ones growing nearer the center. They must be picked one by one, with ungloved hands, for if the branch is broken, or if its silver-green leaves are stripped, the plant will not produce the following year. And here is Mother Nature’s little joke: Behind each and every caper bud lurks a long, needle-sharp thorn. Even so, practiced pickers work quickly because they are paid by the kilo. 

Capers, like olives, cannot be eaten in their natural, raw state. The searingly bitter fluid inside them must be leached out, either by soaking them in brine (as in Spain) or by salting them and drying them in the sun (as on Pantelleria). Also, they must be picked before their flowers bloom. If blooms appear, a stemmed, olive-shaped caperberry develops; this is the larger, fruitier garnish used in martinis and in tapas selections.

 The tiny round bud of the caper, once cured, dots salads and sauces to add a ripe and complex, metallic saltiness that some love and others hate (the latter crowd usually detesting anchovies as well). Opposing views on the use of capers also abound. In some countries, they reinforce other salty and piquant ingredients, as in tapenade (tapeno being the Provençal word for the bud called capre in French). In Italy, where they are known as capperi, they spike up pungent Sicilian pasta sauces and the vegetable relish caponata. But in Germany (kapre) and England, capers punch up otherwise bland cream sauces.

 When buying capers, whether jarred in brine or sold dry, look for uniform size and a good, even green-bronze color that has not faded to yellow. Whether dry or brinecured, all capers should be rinsed before being used; the dried variety should be soaked for about ten minutes in warm water or olive oil.