Peppers

Peppers play a key role in the Northern Spanish kitchen and their huge variety can be bewildering to the uninitiated. There are dozens of different peppers, ranging from the minuscule chilli (chili) pepper with attitude to the sweet and mellow bell pepper. They appear in so many guises: fresh, roasted, pickled, dried and ground. Spanish peppers are an indispensable ingredient in my larder and soon you may find them irresistible too.

Nowadays it seems almost inconceivable that the pepper appeared on the scene only after the discovery of the Americas. The gold the explorers set out to find has paled into insignificance today; yet the crops they brought back changed the taste of Spain forever. There were potatoes, corn, haricot (navy) beans, tomatoes, chocolate and vanilla. But, none of these have had the impact of the all-pervasive pepper.