Galicia · 15 min · Vegan · Starter · For beginners
Pimientos de Padrón
In German: Gebratene Paprikaschoten · In English: Padrón peppers
For 4 servings · US units
Small green peppers fried in olive oil, hot from the pan and scattered with coarse salt
These little green peppers, picked while still unripe, come from Padrón in Galicia, and they're fried whole in olive oil until the skins blister. That's really all there is to it: two crushed garlic cloves in the oil, coarse sea salt at the end. Fifteen minutes and you have a bowl on the table — a tapa to share, or a quick side for whatever's on the grill in summer.
Ingredients
- 10½ ozsmall green unripe peppers; washed and patted drySmall green peppers from Galicia, usually mild, occasionally surprisingly hot.Substitute: Shishito peppers from an Asian grocer are almost identical, just slightly thinner-walled and slimmer. Italian friggitelli also work but are sweeter and almost never hot.Read more
- 3 tbspolive oilfor frying or for the marinade
- 1 tspSea saltcoarse or flaked, for seasoning after cooking
- 2 clovesgarliccrushed unpeeled and fried in the oil, or pressed into the marinade
- pepperfor seasoning
Method
- Wash the Padrón peppers under cold water and pat them thoroughly dry, so they fry in the pan rather than steam. Leave the stalks on — the peppers are cooked whole.
- Crush the garlic cloves with the flat of a knife, skins and all. If you want a stronger garlic flavour, peel the cloves and press them instead.
- Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan and let the crushed garlic sizzle gently for a moment, until it smells good and has given its flavour to the oil.
- Add the whole peppers to the hot pan — they should sit side by side in a single layer, so fry them in two batches if needed.
- Fry over medium to high heat, turning them several times, until the skins blister all over and brown in patches. Depending on the size of the peppers this takes only a few minutes.
- Remove the unpeeled garlic cloves from the pan — if you pressed the garlic, there's nothing to fish out. Then tip the peppers into a bowl and only now season with coarse sea salt and pepper.
- Serve straight away, while the skins are still crackling.
Tips and variations
For a plainer version, leave out the garlic altogether and work with nothing but olive oil and sea salt. For the grill, let the peppers sit first in a marinade of oil, pressed garlic and pepper, then cook them over indirect heat with the lid closed, about five minutes per side. If you'd like them softer, leave them to sit in the covered pan for a moment after frying. Instead of sprinkling the salt over the top, you can toss the hot peppers straight in salt flakes — and the best way to eat them is to pick them up off the plate by the stalk with your fingers.
Something not right?
This recipe was put together from independent sources and checked before publishing. Even so, a mistake can slip through — an amount that does not add up, a step that does not work as written. If you spot something, write to us: we will look into it and put it right.
