Briny, tart, and surprisingly complex, the tiny Mediterranean caper has played a key role on dinner plates for several thousand years. Can you imagine Pasta Puttanesca or Caponata or Chicken Piccata – and don’t forget tartar sauce -without the pungent, slightly sweet punch of these little flavor bombs? 

You’ve seen them in tall cylindrical jars on the supermarket shelf, but where do these small, dusky green edibles originate? Capers are actually fledgling flower buds from the Capparis Spinosa plant, a spindly low-growing bush that supports fleshy leaves and beautiful white and purple flowers. But it’s the precursor to the flowers – the tiny buds – that rule the day.