Ground Hot Pepper in Oil

Name: Ground Hot Pepper in Oil
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: 3 borcane
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 800g red hot peppers (as ripe as possible, should be a deep red); 25g salt; 250ml oil (olive oil); 3 tablespoons strong vinegar (9%); yield: 3 jars of 200ml

September 17, 2015

Italian Vegetables Pickles and Canned

For spicy dishes that will warm us up in winter. It's great in pasta sauces, stews, soups, on pizza - practically anywhere you want some heat.

A year ago, I bought a jar of "crema di peperoncino calabrese" in Brasov (there was a stall with Italian products in the center) - a paste made from ground hot peppers in oil. I loved it so much, I used every last gram of that jar. When I ran out, I already had a new project: to find out how to make it at home. I gathered the first clues from this page and combined them with a recipe in Romanian, except I didn't add garlic, just a little vinegar as it was listed on the purchased jar. I prepared the paste 2 weeks ago, let it sit to see how it behaves, and yesterday I tested it on a portion of pasta. Verdict: a splendid color, taste to match, perfect for posting.

With this paste you'll make the best aglio, olio e peperoncino pasta, pasta with spinach and meat or spicy baked wings.

Ingredients

800g red hot peppers (as ripe as possible, should be a deep red)
25g salt
250ml oil (olive oil)
3 tablespoons strong vinegar (9%)

Yield: 3 jars of 200ml

How to prepare ground hot pepper in oil

For the following operations involving hot peppers, wear gloves. Cut the stem ends off the peppers, then split them lengthwise and remove the cores and seeds. You can clean the peppers either with a knife by scraping the inside, or by hand (I find this easiest). Don't struggle to remove absolutely all the seeds 😊
* if you want the paste to not be extremely hot, you can substitute some hot peppers with 1-2 bell peppers cut into slices after cleaning; I used 600g hot peppers and 200g bell pepper this time
Sprinkle salt over the peppers and mix well.
Place the peppers in a sieve, put parchment paper on top and then a weight to press them down. Set the sieve over a collecting bowl.
Put the bowl in the refrigerator for 3 days. During this time, quite a lot of juice will collect at the bottom of the bowl.
Pass the peppers through a meat grinder (using the finest disc you have). Put the ground peppers back in the sieve and let drain for another hour.
Mix the resulting paste with oil and vinegar.
Divide the mixture into clean jars. Place the jars in a pot (I also put a towel at the bottom of the pot to hold the jars better), cover them with water and place over medium heat. When the water boils, reduce heat to low and boil for 30 minutes from that moment.
Remove the jars, place them upside down (on their lids) and leave for 10 minutes. Cover the jars with blankets and let them sit until the next day (until completely cooled). Store in a cool place. Before putting the jars in the pantry, check the lids with this method.