European Chilis

European Chilis are mostly derived from Spanish types, except in Portugal and Holland. Chilis were carried to Hungary by the Turks. These tended to be of moderate heat, as are Turkish chilis today, so they probably acquired them from the Spanish rather than the Portuguese. The Greeks probably got their chilis from the Turks, and the Italians from the Spanish. Spain continues to grow far more varieties of Chilis than the rest of Europe. The Dutch brought back fairly hot chilis from their East India colonies (Indonesia), who had gotten them from the Portuguese.

More on Chili Peppers.

• Chilis - Fresh & Dried
• Chili Powders & Flake

Chili Varieties - Fresh & Dried

This page features European Chilis that are significant in their particular cuisines, and available in North America. There are hundred, or even thousands more of local significance.

Bell Peppers

Green when unripe, red, yellow, orange, purple, white, pink, etc. when ripe. These are always sold fresh, and are only dried for use as industrial food additives. Box shaped to heart shaped, these large (up to 5 inches across) chilis feature thick, crisp and flavorful flesh with no heat (H0), making them popular in nearly every cuisine worldwide, including all European cuisines.

Wikipedia says the Bell Pepper originated in Szeged, Hungary in the 1920s, and the USDA records the first commercial crop in the southeastern USA in 1925. On the other hand, Lionel Wafer wrote in 1699, "Bell pepper is a large, fleshy mild green pepper, turning into red or gold when fully ripe". Further, Thomas Jefferson record receiving Bell Pepper seeds from Mexico in 1824, and the Boston Cooking School Cookbook of 1896 has a recipe for "Stuffed Peppers" calling for "6 green peppers". Proportions given suggest Bell peppers. In these peppers, the gene for producing capsaicin is replaced by a recessive form, so they lack the sting of other chilis.

Striped Holland Pepper / Aloha Pepper® #3465

[Capsicum (British), C. annuum]

This Bell Pepper was discovered in the Netherlands. It is now marketed in North America by Sunset as tropical "Aloha Pepper", even though it has nothing whatever to do with Hawaii or the tropics. Surprisingly, they taste just like Bell Peppers, and with heat ( H0). They can be eaten raw or cooked, and do retain their stripes when cooked.

Capsicum

1. The scientific family name for all chilis.
2. Bell Peppers in what remains of the British Empire.

Choricero peppers

This Chili is extremely popular in the Basque Country of the far north of Spain. Great festoons of them are hung up in Basque households to dry. They are very non-hot at H0-H1. These peppers come in several shapes, some of which are narrow, very pointy and up to 8 inches long. The photo specimens are a variety where the point is tucked back into the inside. They were up to 5.5 inches long by 1-3/4 inch diameter (14 x 4.5 cm).

Unlike the Espelette Pepper from the French side of the border, they dry very wrinkly, and are most often dried. To use them they are soaked well, until the skins are fairly smooth.The flesh is then scraped from the skins, which can be done with a metal teaspoon. The taste is sweet, and with a hint of sun dried tomato. An essential use for these peppers is as a flavoring in Spanish Chroso sausages.

Espelette Pepper (PDO)

This extremely popular Chili is grown in the the French Basque country, in towns tightly clustered in the far southwest corner of France, just above the Spanish border. Great festoons of them are hung up in Basque households to dry. They are smoky/fruity in flavor and moderately hot at H5. They are AOC (France) and PDO (Europe) protected in 10 towns. Due to the PDO (2002), they cannot be called "Espelette" if grown outside that tiny region. Some Non-PDO peppers are grown in California and Idaho. The photo specimens were up to 4 inches long and 1-1/8 inch diameter (10x3 cm), grown in Idaho and sold as "Basque Pepper".

Fresno Chili

This is the chili chosen by all ethnicities in Southern California as the medium hot fresh red chili suitable for their cuisines - and I have recently seen them listed in European chili lists, so make no apologies for including them here. They are about hotness H4-5. Core and seed them, but leave in the membranes (where the heat is) if you want some heat. With the membranes carefully removed they have little heat. They have good flavor, and the walls are quite thick, so they are not dried. For details see our Fresno Chili page.

Greek

Guindilla (Basque)

Holland Red

A cayenne type pepper sold fresh and red ripe. They are 4 to 6 inches long by 5/8 inch diameter and tapered to a sharp point, hotness H4-H5. They have thicker flesh than some long narrow chilis and sweet taste. These are popular in Holland and its former colonies in Indonesia as well as other parts of Europe and California. Probably would be about right for Sichuan and Hunan recipes and are a good choice for most ethnic cuisines. Fresnos are a good substitute, though of different shape and thicker walled, and are much more readily available here in California.

Hungarian Green

These yellow-green chilis have medium thick walls with crunchy texture and little or no heat (H0 - H1). The center photo specimen was 5-7/8 inches long, 2-1/8 inches across and weighed 4-1/4 ounces. Allowed to fully ripen they become bright red-orange.   Details and Cooking.

Hungarian Wax

These long, medium hot chilis, tapering to a slightly rounded tip, are sold fresh when yellow green. They have fairly thin walls and hotness is usually H4,H5. They are extensively used in European cuisines, particularly that of Hungary. Allowed to fully ripen, they become orange-red. The largest of the photo specimens was 7-3/4 inches long, 1.2 inches diameter at the big end and weighed 1-5/8 ounces.

Italian Frying Pepper / Cubanelle

This Chili is said to have been brought from southern Italy in 1887, and is now very much favored in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Cuba, but also used in many other cuisines where a thin walled, thin skinned very mild chili is wanted. Interestingly, I have never seen these in Southern California, where the type is represented by Hungarian and Armenian / Turkish peppers. These Chilis are usually very mild, solidly within hotness H1, but they can occasionally get to the high end of H2. They are usually harvested while still yellow-green, but turn bright red if allowed to ripen. They have rather thin walls and grow to about 6 inches.   Subst: preferably the very low heat Hungarian or Armenian / Turkish chilis. Anaheims are second choice (thicker walls, more intense flavor, usually a little hotter) and green bell peppers are a distant third (very thick walls, different flavor).   Photo by United States Department of Agriculture = public domain.

Italian Sweet Peppers

Fresh green, 2 to 7 inches long by 3/4 inch in diameter, H0-H2 and easily recognizable by their wrinkly tops. They come in two varieties, smooth and wrinkled. They are fine for munching on or using in salads or Italian recipes. Red ones are sweeter but not nearly as available as green.

Lombardi

These Italian peppers are pickled in the same way as Peperoncini, but have no heat whatever, making them comparatively rather dull and uninteresting. In my opinion, not worth the price. The longest in the photo was 7.5 inches long and 0.65 inch diameter.

Nora

A small heart shaped dried sweet pepper about 1-5/8 inch diameter or smaller. It's very important to much Spanish cooking, particularly from the Basque region. It's quite sweet with almost no hotness and can be had from Spanish emporiums in the U.S. at a stunning $3.50 per ounce or so. Cascabels look similar but have a thinner, much less sweet flavor and more hotness.

My formula for a substitute for Nora Peppers is this: 3 parts California Chilis, 2 parts Ancho Chilis and about 1/8 teaspoon of Lemon Juice for each chili used - Noras have a definite sour tang to them. This mix is a shade darker in flavor and has a little more heat than real Noras but it's reasonably close.

Padrón

From the concello of Padrón in the northwest corner of Spain, these peppers are wrinkly in shape and erratic in heat. The saying is, "Padrón Peppers, some are hot, some are not". Those in the photo were grown in Southern California and were just a little hot. The largest was 2-3/4 inches long and 1-1/2 inches diameter. In weight they ran from about 1/2 ounce to 1-1/4 ounces.   Subst:   The Japanese Shishito Chili is an excellent substitute.   Details and Cooking.

Paprika

Medium size pointy pods of this sort (6 to 8 inches long and 1-1/2 inches wide) are allowed to ripen fully, then dried and ground into Paprika powder in Hungary (American paprika is made from dried Anaheim type pods). Originally all Hungarian paprika was hot, but non-hot versions were desired by neighboring countries. A mild variety was discovered, and now dominates production. The Hungarians say their Chilis came from China, but they were brought by invading Turks, who probably got them from the Portuguese through India, not China. In any case paprika chilis were being planted in private gardens in Hungary by 1569.   Photo by Josip Rodin distributed under GNU General Public License v3.

Peperoncini

Pickled peperoncini are a mainstay of sandwich making and are often used in salads, particularly Greek salads. They are very seldom seen in North America except in pickled form, as in the photo. Greek varieties (the photo specimens were from Greece) are reputed to be sweeter than the Italian. They are picked fairly small, typically 2-1/2 inches long by 1-1/4 inches across, and they are rather mild (H1). In Italy the name "peperoncini" is not used for these but only for hotter chilis.

Pimento

Red ripe, round or heart shaped to 4 inches in diameter with thick walls making them substantial and attractive for food processing uses where appearance is a factor. Hotness H0, they are very tasty and sweet, similar in flavor to red bells but more intense. Unfortunately they are seldom seen in stores in the US.

Pimientos del Piquillo

["Little Beak"; C. annuum]

Red ripe pimento type peppers grown around Lodosa in the Spanish state of Navarra and strictly regulated by Denominacion de Origen. They are flame roasted over open wood fires, seeded and peeled by hand and put up in jars and cans. Spanish chefs who otherwise would never consider something from a can to be edible dote over these. Similar peppers are grown and similarly prepared in Peru.

Piquillos are often stuffed and served as tapas. They have very low heat (H0) and are very tasty and sweet. Fresh they look like a Fresno chili, but lack the heat. As canned they measure about 2-1/2 inches long and 2-1/4 inches across. They can be ordered from Spanish import emporiums or from various on-line sources.

Piri Piri / Malagueta

Up to 2 inches long, these are standard bird chilis. Larger ones are called Malagueta in Brazil and Portugal, smaller ones are called Piri Piri in Portugal and Malagueta in Brazil. They are pretty much identical to the Piri Piri chilis of Africa, because those were brought to Africa by the Portuguese. They are quite hot at (H9). Subst: Thai Chilis, not as hot but much more available.   Caution:   many food writers have fallen afoul of confusion between Malagueta Peppers and Melegueta Pepper, a spice seed in the Ginger family also known as Grains of Paradise.

Serrano Chili

Native to the mountains of Mexico, these are NOT a European chili, but they should be. They are available everywhere in the Americas, have been enthusiastically adopted in Thailand and are spreading to other parts of Asia. Here in North America, they are the "go-to" for fresh hot green chilis when chilis native to a particular cuisine are not available.

These have more flavor than most hot green chilis - but nobody seems to be complaining. They are fairly hot (about H6), but the heat can be much reduced if necessary, by removing the seed mass and membranes. They are usually used green with the seeds in. They can be up to 4.5 inches (11.5 cm) long and 0.8 inch (2 cm) diameter. The flesh is fairly thick, so they are not dried.

Chili Powders & Flake

Cayenne

Paprika, Hungarian, Sweet & Hot

Hungarian paprika is flavorful and brilliant red. "Sweet" (H0) and "Hot" (H2) versions are sold. Today, when a recipe calls for "paprika" it means sweet - hot is used mainly as a "sprinkle" at serving, but originally all Hungarian paprika was hot.

Though now the signature spice of Hungarian cooking, paprika was little used until after 1850. It is said the technique for grinding chilis into fine powder was first developed in Hungary.

Paprika, Spanish

Spanish paprika is made from an entirely different chili than the Hungarian, coming directly from the New World rather than through Turkey, and it has a different flavor. It comes in several versions, including Dulce (Sweet), Agridulce (bittersweet) Picante (Hot, about (H3)), Ahumado (Smoked, about (H2)). Hungarian paprikas are reasonable substitutes for Dulce and Picante, but the others are unique to Spain.