David, I don't know about Jimmy Nardano's size. Giant Marconi are 6" anyway and usually longer. They aren't monsters but compare to Anaheims.

Giant Marconi might be giants relative to regular Marconi. Which is fairly long but not very wide.

Of course, we have them in stir fry but, if it is cool enuf to put something in the oven . . . google "unstuffed pepper casserole" for a favorite choice of ingredients!

Steve

Jimmy Nardano is about an inch dia at the stem, then wrinkles its way on down about 6 - 8 inches to the point. They have much better flavor than any of the other sweet peppers I've tried - I'm going to plant them again.

Checked out the unstuffed pepper casserole stuff - thanks!

David, an internet search for Jimmy Nardano pepper turned up nothing. Did you mean Jimmy Nardello?

Er, yes.

Oops.

Oh, okay. Unfortunately, my Jimmy Nardello is in the Earthboxes that I had issues with earlier in the season, so I have only harvested two so far, and that might be all I get out of them. Will have to solve the soil mix issues before next season. May grow them again next year, although I thought the Patio Red Marconi last year was just as tasty, and way more productive.

Anyway, I used them in a Mexican Cornbread dish - totally southern and not at all healthy. You saute them with onion and extra lean ground beef. Then layer cornbread batter, lots of cheddar cheese, a layer of corn (or a can of creamed corn), then the other half of the cornbread batter. Bake @ 350ú for ~ 45 min. I also added some hot peppers to the meat mixture. The recipe actually calls for a separate layer of sliced jalapenos, but I just dice and mix with the meat.

So you folks are using them pretty much like any sweet pepper -

That red is so pretty - I'm going to try a batch of salsa with them, and then some corn relish as well -

Enjoying this conversation as I have Gypsy peppers ripening now and some huge Giant Marconis just beginning to color. I don't pick until they change from green to yellow/red/orange. Do you all pick green?

Those Gypsy's get much better tasting once they start going to deep yellow. I don't see much benefit in letting them turn red. Picking them bright green in a pinch ---

Right now, I have a happy team of chipmunks nibbling on a few of them - I set out 4 mousetraps with peanut butter, and the next day, all the mousetrap were just gone......

The last Giant Marconi of the season usually have a nice "blush." Those come in and hang from high cabinet knobs in the kitchen. They turn red very nicely.

I have tried to grow Red Marconi, specifically. It never ripened to red.

The green fruits are very suitable for anything where you might use a green bell pepper. I just try to allow the fruits to get past that "tight" look. By that time, they are sweet.

Steve

Steve, have you tried Patio Red Marconi? It's designed for growing in containers, and I had no trouble at all with getting it to ripen to red in my growing season. Very productive, very sweet, excellent flavor. I have seeds if you'd like to try it. Just let me know.

Uh oh! I see that I missed a question from Bonnie.

No Bonnie, I haven't tried one with the name "Patio." I see that Baker Creek has it and Reimers says that it is a 72 day pepper! Seed Savers has "Red Marconi" as a 70 to 90 day pepper. I think that the 90 days must be for actual red. It never made it that far in my garden. My guess is that Patio probably means a smaller, quicker growing plant.

By way of making up for having missed that question: here is a picture of Giant Marconi and the new bell I've grown this year (along with Snapper).

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The knife is 7" open, like that. These are just run-of-the-mill Giant Marconi, there are larger. The 2 bells are new-to-me Big Earlies. (I should have turned the larger one so that you can see the length of it.

I just cut up the Big Early and can tell you that I'm reasonably happy with this variety. It certainly is tender and a nice, mild bell. And, big. Makes a good replacement for Park's Whopper which only seems available from Reimers these days. (Makes you wonder about Parks. ;o)

These are so good cooked with the tomatoes!!

Steve