As they say in Galicia:

Os pementos de Padrón, uns pican e outros non. – Padrón peppers, some are hot and some are not.

Pementos de Padrón (Padrón peppers) are normally mild manners little things, but every so often you get a spicy one. Nobody seems to agree on how often the hot ones crop up, I’ve read and been told everything from 1 in 10, to 1 in 50.

I must have eaten in excess of a hundred of these yummy little green peppers, and I only bit into my first spicy one yesterday. When you do get one they are quite hot, although not excessively. I found that in addition to the heat they are really very bitter.

If you want the technical bit, the heat of the pepper varies according to the level of capsaicin. This varies naturally, but the peppers grown later in the season seem to be slightly more piquant than the earlier ones.

A bit of history

Monks. They make wine, beer, Chartreuse and Benedictine. They make great cheeses and bake bread, and in addition to all of this they introduced lovely little Padróns to Spain from South America in the 16th century.

Fransiscan monks brought the pepper seeds back from their travels, and began to grow them in the gardens of the convent in the village of Herbón.

Herbón is in the district of Padrón (hence the name), in Galicia, and the weather conditions and very fertile soil in the region quickly proved to be perfect for growing the peppers. The Padróns were an immediate hit with locals, and the monks began to cultivate them in earnest and trade the peppers for whatever else they needed.

Skipping forward about 400 years, and the valley around Herbón is still the world centre of Padrón growing, but it is no longer the monks doing the hard work. The locals have been growing them for generations, and despite the adoption of modern technology, they are still largely grown using the traditional methods.

Nowadays Padrón peppers are grown all over the place, most notably in the US, and in Australia, but the best still come from Galicia. In Spain and Portugal they cost bugger all, and not a huge amount more in the UK and the rest of Europe, but further afield they are expensive.

Nutritional Stuff

As with all nutritional information and health benefits, how good (or bad) something is for you depends entirely on who you ask, or which survey you read, but Padrón peppers seem to come out pretty well.

FACT: They contain vitamin A, B1, B2, C and P, as well as plenty or protein, calcium and iron.

MAYBE: They might reduce blood pressure, help scars heal faster, and work as an aphrodisiac.

What to do with them

The traditional Galician way to eat them is incredibly simple, and you’ll find them prepared in this way in tapas bars all across Spain and Portugal.

1. Put some olive oil into a frying pan and heat it to a high temperature (until it is just starting to smoke)

2. Throw the Padróns into the pan whole and fry them, turning occasionally, until all of the skin has started to blister on all sides.

3. Sprinkle them with a generous amount of sea salt, and serve.

They taste great when paired with Ribiero, a young Galician white wine, or with Txakoli, a similar Basque wine.

You can also stuff them with cheese and bake them, or use them in any variety of recipes. Check out the recipe section for some coming soon.