Insalata Pantesca

Pantelleria's salad of warm potato, tomato, red onion, oregano, and the island's salt-cured capers

Origin: Pantelleria, Sicily, Italy

From the journey of Caper.

Pantelleria is a heap of black lava in the channel between Sicily and Tunisia, closer to Africa than to Italy, with no rivers, very little rain, and a wind that does not stop. It grows three things properly: zibibbo grapes for sweet wine, a squat sun-dried tomato, and the best capers in the world. This salad is all three of the island's habits on one plate, and it is what is eaten there at midday through the summer. The capers are the reason the dish exists in this form. Pantelleria's are cultivated on terraced dry-stone giardini, picked by hand every ten days or so from late May through August, always at first light before the buds can open, and then cured in nothing but coarse sea salt: graded by size, layered in barrels, turned and re-salted over several weeks while the salt draws the water out. No vinegar comes near them. The result carries a protected designation, and it tastes floral and dense and unmistakably of caper rather than of what it was kept in. Put a brined caper in this salad and you have a different and much flatter dish. Everything else is a matter of restraint. There is no lettuce, no meat, and no cheese in the orthodox version, and there is certainly no mayonnaise. Waxy potatoes are boiled and dressed while still warm so they take up the oil; tomatoes and red onion go in raw; oregano is dried rather than fresh, because dried island oregano is stronger and this is not a delicate dish; and good olive oil, red wine vinegar, and the capers do everything else. Some households add olives or a few leaves of basil, and a version with tinned tuna is common enough to be respectable. It improves for standing half an hour before it is eaten, and it should never see a refrigerator.

Ingredients

Salad

700 g waxy potatoes, unpeeled, of even size
400 g ripe tomatoes, cut into rough 3 cm wedges
1 whole red onion, halved and very thinly sliced
4 tbsp salt-packed capers, preferably from Pantelleria or Salina, rinsed and soaked
80 g black olives, stoned, optional

Dressing

2 tsp dried oregano, preferably Sicilian on the branch
80 ml extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 pinch freshly ground black pepper

To Finish

1 handful basil leaves, torn, optional

Method

Put the capers in a bowl of cold water and soak for twenty minutes, changing the water once. Drain and taste one; it should be savoury and floral rather than aggressively salty.
Boil the potatoes whole in well-salted water for 18 to 22 minutes, until a knife goes in with no resistance. Drain and leave until just cool enough to handle.
Peel the potatoes while still hot, holding them in a cloth, and cut them into 3 cm chunks straight into the serving bowl.
Pour half the olive oil and all the vinegar over the warm potatoes at once and turn them gently. Leave for ten minutes to absorb.
Add the tomatoes, onion, drained capers, and the olives if using. Scatter over the oregano, crumbling it between your palms as you go, and grind over the black pepper.
Pour over the remaining olive oil and turn everything together gently with your hands rather than a spoon, so the potatoes do not break up.
Leave to stand at room temperature for at least thirty minutes before serving. Taste for salt at the last moment, and add basil if using.

Notes

Salt-packed capers from Pantelleria or the Aeolian island of Salina are worth the difference here, because there is nowhere for a poor caper to hide. Both carry protected designations. Brined capers will work if rinsed well; capers in vinegar will make the salad taste of vinegar and should be avoided. The tomatoes matter almost as much. Pantelleria uses its own small intense variety, and the nearest thing elsewhere is a good ripe plum or datterino tomato at the height of summer. This is not a dish to make in February. Common additions across the island and the wider Sicilian repertoire: a tin of good tuna in oil, flaked over the top, which turns it into a whole meal; a hard-boiled egg quartered; a handful of rocket. Adding cheese, mayonnaise, or lettuce is not done. It keeps for a day covered at room temperature and is arguably better the next lunchtime, though the onion will have softened and gone sweeter.

The Gastrographer

Name: Insalata Pantesca
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 1 h 10 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: 700 g waxy potatoes, unpeeled, of even size; 400 g ripe tomatoes, cut into rough 3 cm wedges; 1 whole red onion, halved and very thinly sliced; 4 tbsp salt-packed capers, preferably from Pantelleria or Salina, rinsed and soaked; 80 g black olives, stoned, optional; 2 tsp dried oregano, preferably Sicilian on the branch; 80 ml extra-virgin olive oil; 2 tbsp red wine vinegar; 1 pinch freshly ground black pepper; 1 handful basil leaves, torn, optional

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control