Peppers are an iconic Italian ingredient eaten across the peninsula. Hot or sweet, stuffed, grilled, roasted, dried, or simply eaten raw, peppers are found throughout Italian cuisine. But, like other renowned Italian ingredients, chili peppers aren't native to Italy, or even to Europe. Italians have spent the last five centuries making this imported vegetable their own.
Origins of the Pepper
When Christopher Columbus set off from Spain, one of the primary objectives was securing spices from Asia. Although Columbus and his ships bumped into Caribbean islands off the coast of North America rather than circumnavigating the globe, the Spanish expeditions did secure access to rare spices – the only problem was, these were not the spices they were looking for.
In medieval Europe, one of the spiciest flavors available to cooks was black pepper, but pepper was rare and expensive. Peppercorns are actually dried out berries originally grown in Asia and supply was tightly controlled by traders. Explorers from Europe were eager to find the source of black pepper, and break the existing monopolies.
Today, we might not think of black pepper as spicy, but this was before anyone outside of the Americas had discovered chili peppers with capsaicin. Hot peppers get their heat from the chemical compound capsaicin, the active component in peppers that give the fruits their heat.
As the Spanish explored South and Central America, they began what is now known as the Columbian Exchange. European plants, animals, diseases were exported to the Americas, and plants, animals, and diseases native to the Americas were sent back to Europe. Included in this bounty of "new" vegetables were tomatoes, potatoes, and hot chili peppers.
Italy Says “Benvenuti” to Peppers
As luck would have it, during the era of exploration, Spain controlled Sicily and Southern Italy. Many of the fruits and vegetables the Spanish discovered in the Americas quickly entered into Sicilian and southern Italian cuisine. The first peppers arrived in Italy in the 1520s, and from then on Italians began cultivating new varieties.
In Italian, the term “peperoncini” translates into the generic term for peppers, and “peperoncino” is a singular pepper. In the United States, peperoncini refers specifically to small greenish, pickled peppers, commonly known in Italy as friggitello peppers. But, there are many other varieties of peppers developed on the peninsula from large, sweet bell peppers known as quadrato d'asti to longer conical-shaped peppers like Marconi varieties.
Southern Italians embraced the hot chili pepper, developing many new spicy varieties. Dried hot pepper is often used in the same way salt and black pepper are used in French and northern European cuisine – to the taste of the chef. Few recipes mention red pepper flake or red pepper chili powder because it was expected the chef would add the heat to their own desired level.
Turning Up the Heat
Peppers today are usually associated with spice, like Spaghetti All'Arrabbiata, the "angry" pasta sauce from Rome. In this sauce, the anger comes from the spicy peppers or crushed red pepper, depending on the recipe. Crushed red pepper also has grown into a staple as a result of the popularity of pizzerias. Italians in the south traditionally would dry whole peppers on strings, but crushed red pepper made this dish a convenient condiment. Crushed red pepper is simply a dried, hot pepper that has been pulverized including the skin and seeds.
However, no region of Italy has embraced the hot pepper more than Calabria. This southern province to the toe of Italy's boot has numerous local specialty foods packed with hot peppers. The most famous of these dishes is 'Nduja. This is a spreadable pork sausage made from the trimmings of meat and spiced with hot peppers. 'Nduja may well have been the inspiration behind pepperoni, a sausage with Italian American roots.
Other common dishes in Calabria include hot chili oil where olive oil has been spiced with peppers; chili pepper spread, a kind of bruschetta made with hot peppers; and chili powder. Hot sauce as a condiment is not especially common in Italy, but there are a few varieties produced in Calabria, and the region itself has become a kind of branding. Numerous American hot sauce companies now offer Calabrian peppers in their product lineup.
Italian Peppers in America
When Italians immigrated to the United States, they often brought with them seeds from their own gardens. In America, Italians were likely to set up home gardens, even when they lived in dense cities, spreading regional varieties of fruits and vegetables across the United States.
In the Chicago area, for instance, the Melrose pepper has been a popular seed varietal since it arrived in 1903 with Joseph and Luca Napolitano. According to Amy Bizzarri at the Chicago Tribune. The Napolitano’s brought the seeds from Nocera Inferiore in Campania. To feed their fifteen children, they maintained a large garden, including the 4 to 6-inch long peppers. These were sweet peppers rather than hot, popularly substituted for generic bell peppers. Their eldest son Tom shortened the family name to Naples, and began selling the Melrose peppers commercially in the 1920s. The peppers are still popular in and around Chicago and can be found in local specialties like Italian Pepper and Egg sandwiches.
The Nardello pepper, a popular pepper in Connecticut, has a similar story. Guiseppe and Angella Nardello brought seeds with them from their hometown of Ruoti, Basilicata in around 1887. They settled in Naugatuck where they raised eleven children. Their son Jimmy continued growing them well into the 20th century and eventually donated seeds to the Seed Savers Exchange.
Sweet peppers are an important part of Italian American cuisine in recipes like Chicken Scarpariello, the "shoemakers" chicken. Peppers are combined with sausage and chicken in this braised dish. And sweet peppers are of course essential to the classic sausage and pepper sandwich served up at Italian street fairs and festivals, like San Gennaro. The first San Gennaro festival in New York City was held in 1926, and a year later sausage and peppers were a mainstay of the festival, a celebration attracting Italian Americans from as far away as Maine and Ohio. The sandwiches continued to be a major draw at San Gennaro and other Italian street fairs around the country.
Ian MacAllen
Ian MacAllen is America Domani's Senior Correspondent and the author of Red Sauce: How Italian Food Became American. He is a writer, editor, and graphic designer living in Brooklyn. Connect with him at IanMacAllen.com or on Twitter @IanMacAllen.