A Tale of Two Peppers

Here are the stories of two peppers… one sweet and one hot.

Both were selected by Slow Food International for their Ark of Taste, which features foods that should not be lost to our cultures and our kitchens.

JIMMY NARDELLO’S sweet frying pepper is a long, slim, bright-red, slightly wrinkled pepper that looks hot but it’s not. It is just incredibly full flavored raw, steamed, roasted, but most especially fried. Brought from the southern Italian village of Ruoti by Jimmy Nardello’s mother in 1887. Very prolific and hardy.

THE FISH pepper is an extremely ornamental plant, suitable for pot culture on a sunny deck. The variegated, twisted green and white leaves and peppers seem to splash in the breeze like jumping bait. The peppers pack considerable heat and full flavor and are complimentary to seafood, especially shellfish. They may be harvested when pale colored so as not to create ‘specks’ in a cream sauce, or they may be allowed to ripen through orange to red. This pepper has been a specialty of the African-American community in Baltimore since about 1870.

Whatever process Slow Food used to select these peppers, it works.  They are fabulous, vigorous, productive plants and yield pretty peppers with flavor that you will dream about all year long.  Highly recommended.