The Italian Pantry: Brine

Italy teems with salty little things

Brine by Jordan Mackay

Italy teems with salty little things, not just angrily gesticulating Romans after almost mowing you down with a scooter. The briny little things in question here are capers and olives, the pungent, zingy pantry items packed in, preserved by, and transformed via salt to become the culinary building blocks of many iconic dishes.          

No matter where in Italy you are, you only have to drive an hour or two to dip your toes in the Mediterranean Sea. Inevitably, the sea also infiltrates the landscape, notably its kitchens and pantries, via the transformative power of salt. 

As with so many preservation methods - curing and smoking‚ notably - salting protects its ingredients from degradation and alters their flavors and textures. Thanks to the force of osmosis, salt pulls water from an ingredient until the two sides of its cell membrane reach an equilibrium of salt concentration. This action makes it incredibly difficult for many bacteria to grow, preserving the ingredient from harmful spoilage. Lactobacillus bacteria, which live on most fruits and vegetables, are salt tolerant to a greater degree, surviving the initial salt plunge that kills off the harmful bacteria and living to convert lactose and sugars into lactic acid, creating that funky tang we get from kimchi and sauerkraut. The salting and brining of olives, capers, and anchovies likewise accomplish some degree of fermentation. Salt is our friend!

Capers

Little, pungent, piquant, salty capers are the unopened flower buds of Capparis spinosa, a sprawling shrub that grows throughout the Mediterranean, namely Italy, Greece, France, and Spain. Harvested by hand, capers are never used when fresh; they must be cured in salt for some time to tame their bitterness. Sicily and its satellite islands are the most famous for capers, notably the volcanic isle of Pantelleria, which bears Italy's only IGP (Protected Geographical Indication) certification for capers.

Before packaging, capers are cured in sea salt for three to four weeks, during which some of their water is pulled out, and a gentle lactic fermentation eventually occurs. By the time they get to us, capers come either packed in salt or pickled in brine. Both forms of capers are delicious, but salt-packing is a ubiquitous feature of southern Italy. It preserves the dense, complex flavors, which can differ from caper to caper depending on where they are grown.

In Italian markets, you can find capers of different sizes, from the little peppercorn-sized ones, which are usually jarred in vinegar, to bigger, meatier ones the size of lima beans. If you have salt-packed capers, they must be rinsed multiple times or, better yet, soaked for 15-20 minutes in water to mitigate their extreme salinity. After that, drain them, rinse off the salt crystals, and make your next batch of pasta puttanesca or eggplant caponata.

Olives

Olives can be harvested green (underripe), black (ripe), or somewhere on that spectrum, depending on the desired texture and flavor. Green olives are crisp and meaty, while black olives are usually more tender and savory.

Like capers, olives, too, require salt curing to be edible; like capers, they will undergo some degree of lacto-fermentation during the process. Standard curing techniques include salt brining, which creates a mild, plump olive; lye-curing, the fastest method, which uses the caustic alkali to remove bitterness (before olives are soaked in a salt brine); or dry salt curing, which results in those tender, wrinkly olives after either air-drying or olive-oil soaking. 

Italy is a trove of table olives - every region has a signature variety, and they all have their place. Gaeta olives come from Lazio and are black with a bold flavor and tender flesh, not unlike Greece's famous kalamata. From Liguria comes the small but mighty Taggiasca, the same as France's Niçoise. Harvested from dark green to black and cured in brine flavored with herbs and bay leaves, Taggiasca are mild and fruity. Originally a Tuscan variety, Leccino olives are common throughout Central Italy nowadays. Dark green to light brown in color, they offer potent flavor, often accentuated by olive oil packing. And, of course, Sicily's own Castelvetrano, a brined green olive with a gentle, buttery sweetness and a meaty, toothsome texture that makes these sizable gems palatable even for those who claim not to love olives.

Each can be deployed as you see fit - in a pasta sauce or salad, puréed into tapenade, or served in its salty glory from a bowl on a table with a piece of crusty bread and a good glass of wine. And let us not forget America's incredible show of respect for Italy's salty little things (including the caper berry, the caper's larger, pickled cousin): on a skewer, elegantly garnishing a proper martini.

~

The Italian Pantry is a series of essays that will help curate Italian essentials for the home cook. It’s an “addendum” or an “intro” to our dinner party series, which you can find here in the stacks of our newsletter. We’ll be publishing almost every week for the next 10-12 weeks and always welcome your thoughts and insights into your favorite pantry items. Cheers!