One of my favorite tapas to enjoy whenever I’m in Spain is a simple plate of Pimientos de Padrón, fried in olive oil and sprinkled with a little coarse sea salt.  Spain is justly famous for its pimientos (peppers), including the prized red Piquillos of Navarra.  Pimientos de Padrón is a little green gem that comes from Galicia in the northwest.  It’s actually a pepper that the locals pick in its immature stage on purpose, usually at about two inches in length.

The taste of a perfectly fried Pimientos de Padrón is sublime in its simplicity: mildly piquant like a green bell frying pepper, with a much thinner, delicate, slightly caramelized flesh.  Eating a plate of Pimientos de Padrón is also a little like playing Russian Roulette.   You see, roughly eight out of ten of them are on the mild side.  However, every so often you get a really hot one.  It’s kind of like finding a hot jalapeño hiding in the pile.  The spontaneous response you’ll get out of your friends eating one alongside of you is priceless, too: mild, mild, mild, mild, HOT!!!!

Apparently, a fully mature Pimiento de Padrón is a hot pimiento, so the heat is just part of the breed.   What time of the season you enjoy them also determines how many hot “bullets” are in the bowl.  A plate of springtime Pimientos de Padrón will contain a higher percentage of mild peppers.  Summertime warmth seems to increase the percentage of hot ones.  I recently ate a plate of them in mid-July that had about a 50 percent chance of finding a hot pepper.  It didn’t matter really, because the hot pimientos are as delicious as the mild ones.   I love them with a glass of Extra Brut Cava or a dry Spanish Blanco, like an Albariño from Rias Baixas or a crisp Verdejo from Rueda.  A slightly hoppy cerveza will also work well.  

Pimientos de Padrón are becoming popular in authentic tapas bars here in the US.  You can order them on-line ready for the frying pan or buy them as seed and plant them in your garden.  Just remember to pick them young!

Jim Greeley, Wine Supervisor, SW Florida

Follow me on Twitter @AbcWineJimG