We’ll say it plainly: Caper Leaves are a revelation. One of those magical ingredients you taste once and then can’t believe you ever lived without.
These beauties grow wild on the island of Pantelleria, that rocky, windswept speck between Sicily and Tunisia. Do they taste like capers? Kind of. They’re crunchy yet delicate, gently briny, and offer just the right hit of that caper zing… but with less salt and a whole new kind of subtlety. They’re perfect when you want the caper vibe without the full caper punch.
Caper Leaves are turning the tides in Pantelleria’s culinary landscape. With climate change hitting caper harvests hard, the humble leaf is stepping up. “The flowers are struggling,” says our caper guy Gabriele from La Nicchia, “but the leaves? They’re lush, resilient, and full of potential.”
Our chef friends are so obsessed with Pantelleria Caper Leaves that we have a whole collection of recipe inspiration for your summer cooking. Think: fried into crisp little flavor bombs, laid across bruschetta, tucked into sandwiches, topping pizza, part of your aperitivo plate, or giving serious elegance to a vitello tonnato. Or, take a cue from Katie Parla and “take yourself to Pantelleria, Sicilia” with her caper leaf and tomato salad.
HEROIC AGRICULTURE
“Producing in Pantelleria is very complicated […] you must work exclusively by hand, there is no water, and the wind tears everything up so you can’t have greenhouses. We are at the mercy of nature and climatic events,” confessed Gabriele of La Nicchia Pantelleria to Gambero Rosso. Read why they named La Nicchia “the azienda in Pantelleria heroically cultivating capers (even at night).“