I love growing peppers. But not the hot ones New Mexico is so famous for. Now I love NM chiles but I can buy those chiles (that is how we spell it in NM-not chilis). And not those screaming hot ones that are the latest fad for those who want to see how much heat and pain they can endure. No thank you. I like to grow other sweet varieties from Italy, and other peppers from around the world.

One of my favorites is a large cone shaped red pepper, Corno di’ Toro, which means horn of the bull. I named mine Lava Red from my friend Lava, who brought some back from Germany but didn’t know which variety of Corno di Toro they were as there are several varieties. It is 5-8″ long, and starts off green but will turn red as the season progresses. Very sweet with thick skin. We like to grill them (like our NM green chilis) to char the skin and then I peel them. I lay them flat on several layers of wax paper (separating each layer) and freeze them in freezer ziplock baggies. Then I bring out a layer at a time and put them in various dishes-pastas, salads, eggs, etc. I try to wait till they turn red but last year I had to harvest some green and they were sweet also.

Another pepper I discovered last year is called Calabrian Caviar. I got the seeds from Secret Seed Cartel online. It comes from Calabria, Italy.  It has a sweet, crisp flesh and a chili flavor without the heat. I like to stuff it with goat cheese, grilled and serve as an appetizer. I understand there is another variety called Calabrian hot pepper also. These are becoming one of my favorites.

A third variety I love is Jimmy Nardello peppers. They are a red thin-skinned pepper which is even sweeter than either of the two mentioned above. I like to grill or saute them with their skins on. In fact you can’t skin them as the skins are too thin-just eat them raw or sauteed or grilled. Sweeter than most peppers.

Here are the list of peppers I’ve grown so far and like:

PEPPERS
Lava Red– a variety of Corno di Toro or “Bull’s Horn”-sweet pepper
Calabrian Caviar-small bright red pepper hails from Calabria, Italy. Rustic and sweet.
Jimmy Nardello-sweet thin walled pepper-came to US from Italy
Piquillo Lodosa-Hails from Lodesa, Spain. It is an official Basque pepper-very sweet
Habanada-sweet (not to be confused with Habanero which is very hot-this one is not hot at all)
Shishito-not particularly sweet or hot but very tasty (used in tapas)
Poblano-mild heat-used for chili relleno

All these pepper seeds you can find online (except for Lava Red). But you can find other varieties of Corno di’ Toro peppers online.