Padron Pepper

Padrón peppers (Galician: pementos de Padrón) are a variety of peppers (Capsicum annuum) from the municipality of Padrón in the province of A Coruña, Galicia, northwestern Spain. These are small peppers about 2 inches (5 cm) long, with a color ranging from bright green to yellowish green, and occasionally red. Their peculiarity lies on the fact that, while their taste is usually mild, a minority (10-25%) are particularly hot. Whether a given pepper ends up being hot or mild depends on the amount of water and sunlight it receives during its growth, in addition to temperature. It's said that solely watering the soil of the plant is likely to produce milder pimentos, whilst watering the whole plant, leaves and stalks included, produces peppers of the spicier variety.

The peppers are customarily fried in olive oil until the skin starts to blister and the pepper collapses. They are then served hot with the oil and a dusting of coarse salt, sometimes accompanied by chunks of bread, as tapas.

This pepper is also currently grown in various places of southern Spain

Scolville Rating: Some hot some not!