The peperoncini I buy from the market remind me of little red beetles. What’s more, they go by the name peperoncini diavolicchi (little devils), so I am waiting for the day they scuttle from the chopping board, giggling as they do so. Grown in Calabria, this variety is 2-3cm long, smooth and cone-like on the plant, but drying causes the fruits to shrink (hence the resemblance to a small beetle or red raisin), and be on the rascally, rather than demonic side of devilish, so a pleasant amount of heat.
Peperoncini, like all chillies, belong to a genus of the nightshade family called Capsicum, all of which are native to central and south America, and the Caribbean. There are thousands of cultivars of capsicum, five of them widely cultivated, which between them gives us habanero, scotch bonnet, ají amarillo, tabasco pepper, cayenne, poblano, jalapeño and bell peppers, to name just a few. All cultivars contain capsaicin, a lipophilic chemical that produces a sensation of burning, a quality that was harnessed and fundamental in native American medicine.
