Local produce IGP

Cappero di Pantelleria

The island’s caper buds, picked at dawn and cured in sea salt

also known as capperi di Pantelleria

Not a fruit but a bud: it is picked before the flower opens, at dawn, and cured under sea salt. On the volcanic island of Pantelleria it has been PGI since 1996.

The caper is the flower bud of Capparis spinosa, here in the Nocellara cultivar: a low shrub, 30 or 50 centimetres, with white and pink flowers tinged with violet. From late May to September the still-closed buds are picked, before dawn and as soon as they appear: the smallest, once cured, are the best.

Fresh, they are bitter and must be cured. They are put under sea salt and turned for ten days, then drained and put under salt again for another ten: only then are they ready. The PGI, granted in June 1996, covers the whole island and allows a single method of preservation, in sea salt, never in vinegar.

The first modern records of the crop date from 1855, in an essay by Pietro Calcara on the island’s agriculture; in the second half of the nineteenth century production reached 600 quintals. Today the caper goes into insalata pantesca, with potatoes, tomatoes and onion, and its fruits, the cucunci, are preserved the same way.

More flavours of Sicily

Street food PAT

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Street food PAT

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Street food PAT

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🌿 Local produce DOP

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🌿 Local produce DOP

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A large, green olive with firm flesh and a buttery flavour: Nocellara del Belice, sold in America as «Castelvetrano olive», has held DOP status since 1998.

First course

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