Calabrian

Calabrian Pepper – Pizzitano

Pizzitano is a traditional Calabrian pepper from southern Italy. Calabria is famous for hot peppers, and this is one of the types used in the region for drying, cooking, and preserving.

The peppers have a solid medium-hot heat, generally somewhere around 15,000 to 30,000 SHU. That puts them above most Jalapeno types and in territory closer to a hot Serrano, without getting anywhere near superhot levels.

Flavor and Uses

Calabrian peppers are useful because the heat does not completely take over the food. Pizzitano has enough heat to make itself noticed, but there is still plenty of actual pepper flavor underneath it.

Drying is probably the most traditional use. The ripe peppers can be dried whole or crushed into flakes for pizza, pasta, sauces, soups, and just about anything else that needs some heat. If you already use Cayenne for homemade pepper powder, Pizzitano gives you another option with a distinctly Italian background.

The peppers can also be pickled, added fresh to sauces, or used to make chile-infused oil. They pair especially well with tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, and the heavier flavors you find in southern Italian cooking.

Growing Calabrian Pizzitano Peppers

Pizzitano is a Capsicum annuum, so growing it is pretty straightforward compared with many of the slower superhot varieties. Give the plants full sun, warm weather, and regular watering without keeping the roots soaked.

Let the peppers fully ripen if you plan on drying them. Growing a few plants is worthwhile if you want enough peppers to put away for winter.

If Italian peppers are your thing, these fit nicely alongside sweeter varieties such as Jimmy Nardello, while giving you quite a bit more heat.

20+ seeds per pack