Everything you didn't know about capers

Like they're flower buds and you can make cheese with the leaves!

I stroll past these wild capers that grow out of the wall near my street every day as we walk the puppy. I've been posting a few videos and photos in stories and was blown away by the response from people wanting to know more ~ so here you go!

Yes, capers are flower buds!

In fact caper bushes are also known as “Flinders rose”. I love the way the whole bush seems to tumble elegantly out of the unassuming cracks and holes in walls and stone. The flowers with their long purple stamens are stunning, sweetly perfumed, and attract lots of busy bees and other insects. The tiny buds eventually bloom into these pretty flowers. If the flowers don’t get picked, they will then turn into caper berries (which you can pick and also pickle, these are delicious for antipasto or as a cocktail garnish) and if you don’t pick the berries, they turn ripe, bright pink and finally burst open, revealing their seeds. On wild bushes, which aren’t routinely picked, you’ll often see all these different stages at once.

Growing capers

Many people asked about how to grow them. I'm no expert but when you think of places where these do very well, the first place that comes to mind is Pantelleria, Sicily, where since 1996 they have IGP (Protected Geographical Indication) status. But they also flourish in Morocco, Iraq and Greek Islands.

So what you need to know first is they are sun-lovers and they hate being wet. They need plenty of direct sunlight all day. You'll often see them bursting out of a crack in the wall even in unlikely urban centres -- so they not only like arid climates, hot dry summers and drought but they can do well in poor, almost non existent soil (although they do prefer a good alkaline soil). Apparently you can even find them growing in the sand dunes of Northern Western Australia. They just don’t like the frost or having their roots wet, so good drainage is a must.

It makes me think that capers are a helpful plant to grow in places that are increasingly seeing drought thank to climate change. Interestingly, caper plants can stop soil erosion and once established they will do very well for decades, producing fruit and caper buds for 30-50 years. Marvellous.

When it comes to trying to plant capers, fresh seeds as opposed to dry are best and it's very easy to collect fresh seeds from the bursting, ripe caper berries (which turn a beautiful dark red colour) and grow seedlings in a couple of weeks. You need a bit of patience — about 2 or 3 years — before young plants will start flowering.

But you know what else you could do? You can sow them directly in a crack in a stone wall, like you see them around Tuscany and the Mediterranean, and one of the ways I found you can do this is to place the fresh seeds, which look a little bit like the tiny black seeds in kiwi fruit, inside a fresh fig — yes you read that right — and squish it into the cracks or holes of a wall and wait!

It is possible to grow capers in pots too, and this could be a solution in places that experience frost over the winter. Here you can find a handy guide to planting capers in the US. And here is one for Australia.

How to pick and preserve capers

When it comes to picking caper buds, you'll notice a few of different sizes on each branch. The littlest to one end, going bigger as they go closest to the plant. Don't be surprised to return the next day and find more small ones have grown seemingly overnight!

The smallest are the most prized as far as commercial caper picking goes (personally in the kitchen too, I prefer the little and medium ones). So keep in mind when picking them what size you want to go for. Once you’ve collected your capers, weigh them and use the same weight of coarse sea salt. Rinse the capers, drain, then place in a jar in single layers, alternating with a layer of salt, until you fill the jar. Store them this way in a cool place (in my house in the summer the only option is the fridge) for at least 40 days and beyond. Drain out any liquid you see accumulating in the jar, and top up with salt. Unfortunately, like olives, you can’t eat capers as they are, they’re too bitter, so salting them or brining them mellows them out and makes them edible.

By the way, if you have access to a caper bush, you can also pickle the leaves, or dry them and use them as a vegetable rennet for making cheese!

How to use capers

I much prefer salted capers to capers in brine in the kitchen. If you are using salted capers, you should rinse them but also soak them for 10 minutes or so before using so that they aren’t too overpowering.

Capers give such a good oomph to dishes — a bit like anchovies, which they go so well with. But I know, I know, not everyone loves anchovies (more for us anchovy lovers) and capers make a good vegetarian alternative that can give a nice, salty kick. They go so well on pizza (hello Pizza Napoli! My favourite), in pasta, in salads. But also remember you can make a really nice topping for fish or grilled or crumbed meat with some capers — here are some ideas I really like:

• Crumbed veal with burnt caper butter (Lisa Featherby for Gourmet Traveller) — yes please, would also do this on crumbed or panfried fish.

• Add capers to a potato salad, all you need is some olive oil, some cherry tomatoes, sliced red onion, basil or oregano or other fresh herbs and really good olives. This is a salad from Pantelleria, often with mackerel.

• Vitello tonnato wouldn’t be vitello tonnato without a showering of capers on top. They cut through the richness of the tuna mayonnaise and jazz up otherwise quite delicate roast veal (I have the recipe in Tortellini at Midnight, but here is a variation I learned from a winemaker friend’s wife during the vendemmia, Turkey Tonnato but another favourite is tomato tonnato — just thick slices of beefsteak tomatoes with salsa tonnato and capers — these in the photos below are precious Pantelleria capers sent to me from Sicily by Linda Sarris aka the Cheeky Chef).

• My very favourite sauce, that I would eat on anything and everything is salsa verde. The capers are a must in it; they help give it a fresh but salty kick, and they get whizzed up with a large bunch of parsley, lemon juice, a couple of anchovies, garlic and olive oil. This is what you might find to dip fried, crumbed polpette in in Rome, or on warm, juicy panini di lampredotto in Florence. Amazing with roast lamb, on pizza (again) or potato salad (again!).

• Fry capers — just let them sizzle in some olive oil until slightly puffed and crunchy — and use them as a topping on pasta for texture. They would go beautifully with a seafood pasta or my favourite quick meal, pasta al limone (see the recipe over at The Kitchn).

Any other favourite ways with capers to add?