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Have you tried friggitelli? The dinky green peppers with an unmistakably bitter taste that grace most dining tables during the summer heat of Southern Italy.
Excellent simply pan sautéed, friggitelli are actually extremely versatile and lend themselves easily to side dishes as well as enjoyed with pasta or potatoes.
What are friggitelli?
Friggitelli, or friarelli, are small sweet chili peppers native to the south of Italy but also grown in Greece and around the Mediterranean. They may turn red when mature, but are normally picked when green, when they are at their best.
What do friggitelli taste like?
Friggitelli are mild with a hint of bitterness and are often pickled in jars. The complex flavour of friggitelli is best appreciated fresh, but they can also be sautéed or stuffed.
Discover the many ways to cook friggitelli and in which delicious recipes to use them:
How to cook friggitelli
Friggitelli - also known as friarielli in some areas of Southern Italy - can be prepared in various ways. The most common cooking technique is sautéing them in a pan before seasoning with plenty of coarse salt. The dinky peppers are also fun to eat with your hands by holding onto stalk! Whether fried in a pan or baked, the friggitelli are delicious as a side dish, paired with meat and fish.
Pan-fried frigitelli
Once you have washed and dried the friggitelli place them in a large pan, after lightly grilling a garlic clove in extra-virgin olive oil (and some dried pepper for an extra kick, as preferred).
After having briefly blasted the frigitelli over a high heat, lower the heat, pour in a little water, cover them with a lid and leave them to dry completely for about ten minutes. Finally, remove the garlic and generously salt: the fried friggitelli are ready to enjoy!
Oven-baked frigitelli
Put your washed and dried frigitelli in a non-stick baking pan, add a little oil, salt and a couple of crushed garlic cloves and place in a preheated oven for 20 minutes at 180 ° C.
The baked friggitelli will be ready when they appear soft and golden. For a quick and tasty vegetarian recipe, just add an onion to the pan, some tomates and black olives to the pan, together with the friggitelli.
Stuffed frigitelli
Clean the friggitelli and eliminate the upper part, including the stalk and remove the little seeds carefully.
Stuff them with your preferred filling - meat (with minced beef, eggs, parsley, grated bread and Parmigiano Reggiano), with vegetarian filling (with a mixture of tomatoes, dried tomatoes, grated bread and Parmigiano Reggiano) , of fish (with feta and anchovies).
Place them in preheated oven for about 20 minutes at 180 ° C and you're done.
Serving suggestions:
Frigitelli with potatoes
To serve friggitelli as a a more robust side dish, try cooking them with potatoes. In this case you can use both the pan, cutting the potatoes into thin sheets or small slices or baking and mixing well friggitelli and potato wedges, before placing them to cook.
Pasta with frigitelli
For a Mediterranean pasta that'll win your friends and relatives over, take the already pan fried friggitelli and add them to a pan with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and Pachino tomatoes.
This 100% veg sauce is ideal to with spaghetti or any long pasta. Drain the pasta al dente, add to the tomatoes and friggitelli and season with black pepper to taste.
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