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Sweet Italian Frying Pepper Question

14 years ago

Hi. I have an abundance of Cubanelle, Golden Marconi, Biscayne, Carmen and a few others whose names escape me right now. Does anyone have any ideas of what to do with them other than using on Philly Cheese style sandwiches? I wish my zucchini would produce like these peppers, but so far not so much. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. thanks, Mary

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Comments (6)

lindac
14 years ago
Pepper jelly?...How about a pasta sauce? Fry up the peppers with some onions and garlic in good olive oil....put on top of some pasta, add some fresh grated Parm....voila!! dinner!
seagrass_gw Cape Cod
14 years ago
Cut sweet or hot Italian sausage links into large chunks, same with your peppers, sweet onions and russet potatoes. Toss with a bit of olive oil and roast in a 375 oven, stirring after each 30 minutes, until cooked through. Great served with a side of spaghetti and marinara sauce with parm cheese. Leftover sausages and vegetables make a great frittata served with warmed leftover marinara sauce. I always make more so I have leftovers.

Slice peppers and onions, fry and use with grilled Italian sausages (we like them on flat pita bread with designer mustards). Use the same rolled in flour tortillas with chicken or beef for fajitas. I froze leftover cooked peppers/onions after a Memorial Day party and they've been a great timesaver out of the freezer for this.

seagrass
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marlingardener, Thanks for your post and asking for seeds.This is little interesting.I am buying these peppers in the begining of May from the grocery stores in the area.Select the peppers which are in ripening process.This one can judge by changing color with respect to rest of the peppers.Use the seeds from these peppers for sowing in May.I set these seeds in the periphery of large pots which already have plants kept in the sun room for overwintering.Seeds germinate by first week of June.I take these pots out side at the end of May and let the seedlings harden for few days before transplanting in the garden bed.I hope this will provide some help. Thanks all of you for your valuable posts.
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The "white" peppers (those that are cream colored when immature) are very high yielders, but hard to ripen. "Alma Paprika" (mentioned earlier in the thread) is one of those, as is "Feyer Ozon". Both are very compact plants that bear heavily. I've also grown several high-yielding European varieties, "Suptol" and "Taltos". The photo below is of a single plant of "Taltos", pulled just before frost & stripped of leaves: With some reservations, I agree with those that recommend "Cubanelle". It has very large peppers (some 7-8" long) and is incredibly high yielding. So high yielding, in fact, that it requires support to keep the peppers from pulling the plant over, and they are packed in so tightly together that it is hard to pick one without damaging others. Rot can be a problem too, and because it starts from the inside, the peppers might appear normal (for a time) until they are cut open. I've been trying to save seed this year, and it has been frustrating to see so many full-grown peppers begin to change color, only to suddenly turn to mush. To get the full benefit of the huge yield, I recommend picking them green. While I have not grown "Carmen" personally, a gardening friend does, and her plants are loaded, with many ripe. "Sweet Chocolate" (not to be confused with "Chocolate Bell") has elongated bell-like peppers. They tolerate cooler weather, the yield per plant can be huge, and they ripen quickly to a brick red/brown. Thinner walls than a bell though, more like a frying pepper. This one too requires support, otherwise the high pod yield will pull the plant over, or break branches. One of my favorites is another European variety, "Elephant Ear". It has conical peppers 6-8" long that resemble the "Giant Marconi" above, but wider at the shoulder & tapering to a point. The walls are as thick as bells, and the average weight this year has been over 5 ounces per pepper. This has not been a great year for peppers here, but about half of the "Elephant Ear" peppers have ripened, and most of the rest are changing color. I am getting about 8-10 peppers per plant. But for fresh eating & great salsa, I like the "cheese" peppers. They are pumpkin shaped, have very thick walls, and ripen earlier than most bells. "Tennessee Cheese" ripens early, and has a pretty good yield of 2 1/2" wide peppers that are deep red when mature. The walls are often over 1/4" thick, and have less juice than most peppers, so they don't turn to mush when chopped... one of my favorites for adding body to canned salsa. "Greygo" is probably the largest cheese pepper, 4" wide X 2" deep, and average 4 ounces or better. This is my favorite ripe pepper, DW & I eat them like apples... delicious. While the OP is about sweet peppers, even some hot peppers can be sweet under some conditions. That is the case for "Pizza Pepper", from Territorial. The plants are loaded with very large jalapeno-like peppers, 3-4" long & up to 2" wide, with walls nearly 1/4" thick. They can be spicy if harvested during warm weather. When it gets cool though, especially close to frost, most of the immature peppers become almost completely sweet, with a very crunchy texture. Harvested under those conditions, this is my favorite pepper for fresh eating, truly gourmet quality. They also have remarkable storage qualities; I keep them in buckets in an unheated garage for a month with few losses, and in the refrigerator for two months. Over the Labor Day weekend, I visited Heritage Farm (SSE's Iowa headquarters) and walked through most of their trials & preservation gardens. The pepper plot was really interesting - it was how I discovered some of the European peppers that I grow in years past. Saw some great prospects for the future, including "Melrose", a frying pepper sold by several companies. The plants were loaded with 5" long X 1.5" wide peppers tapering to a point, very deep red when mature. It was the last days of August, and not only were nearly all of those peppers ripe, they were shriveling & drying on the plant!!! Early, heavy bearing... looks to be worth trying.
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I believe a frying pepper is one whose flavor improves after frying. You know the Banana Pepper? That's the classic frying pepper. There are lots of varieties both sweet and hot. All the ones I've seen have the banana or the cayenne shape. As stated above, they go real well on a sandwich, and are well worth the short time and effort to prepare. I use them in most every dish. I add them to my frying onions half way through. The varieties I'm growing are Hungarian Wax, Volcano, Jimmy Nardello, Tequila Sunrise, Corno di Toro, Beaver Dam and Tolli's Italian Sweet.
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I agree about the great exchange of information and ideas on these forums. I know of no better watering hole for us gardeners. We get to rub shoulders with gardeners of great expertise from everywhere on earth. As to your salsa quest, two approaches seem promising. One is to find a good flavored Italian sweet pepper. The other is to find a good flavored chile or two which have little or no heat. There are quite a few of those which could be surrogates for a sweet pepper but with different flavors. You are fine tuning your salsa more than I have considered doing. Ordinary salsa recipes don't specify particular pepper varieties. A generic recipe made with generic ingredients will be, well, generic. Choosing ingredients at the varietal level has to make a tremendous difference. It certainly does with wine and other such products. Good luck. Let us know when you've found the holy grail. Jim
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seagrass_gw Cape Cod
14 years ago
Cut sweet or hot Italian sausage links into large chunks, same with your peppers, sweet onions and russet potatoes. Toss with a bit of olive oil and roast in a 375 oven, stirring after each 30 minutes, until cooked through. Great served with a side of spaghetti and marinara sauce with parm cheese. Leftover sausages and vegetables make a great frittata served with warmed leftover marinara sauce. I always make more so I have leftovers.

Slice peppers and onions, fry and use with grilled Italian sausages (we like them on flat pita bread with designer mustards). Use the same rolled in flour tortillas with chicken or beef for fajitas. I froze leftover cooked peppers/onions after a Memorial Day party and they've been a great timesaver out of the freezer for this.

seagrass
lindac
14 years ago
Or...put those sausage chunks and the peppers and onions into a split loaf of Italian bread.....drizzle with EVOO...sprinkle on some fresh basil....cut into chunks and serve!
User
14 years ago

Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table

Roasted Peppers And Italian Sausage Antipasti
=============================================
Red pepper
Green peppers
Yellow peppers
4 Italian Sausage (hot or sweet)
Kalamata olives
Olive oil
Garlic
Hot red pepper flakes (Optional)
Regianno Parmesan Cheese

Good Italian Bread or pita bread cut into wedges.

Roast peppers, peel and cut into 1/2 inch to 1 inch strips.

Grill Italian sausages.

Mix olive oil with finely minced garlic (add red pepper flakes if using).

Place roasted peppers strips decoratively on a nice platter.

Slice sausages on the diagonal and place between the pepper strips.

Decorate with olives.

Drizzle olive oil and garlic over everything and shave some parmesan cheese over top.

Serve as an appetizer with bread and a good Italian Red Wine.
User
14 years ago
How about stuffed peppers? Served over pasta with meatballs.

Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table

Meat Stuffed Peppers
====================
Edited from Lidia's Stuffed Pepper recipe.

Meat Stuffed Peppers

1/3 cup rice
Salt
cubanella, banana peppers, Hungarian sweet peppers, etc...
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 pound ground meat (pork/beef/veal)
1 egg
1/3 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
3 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup chicken broth

Tomato sauce

Olive oil
Garlic,
Onions
Canned tomatoes
Red pepper flakes
Fresh basil

Prepare the Tomato Sauce.

Cook rice until almost tender. Drain and cool to room temperature.
While the rice is cooking, preheat the oven to 400Ã¯Â¿Â½ F, prepare the peppers and start the filling: Cut the stems from the peppers and scrape out the seeds and membranes with a teaspoon. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Stir in the onions and cook, stirring, until wilted, about 4 minutes.

Put the onions, garlic, parsley, fresh oregano and chicken broth in small food processor. Process. Add the cheese, bread crumbs, parmesan cheese and onion mixture to the meat. Mix well. Mix in the egg and season with salt and pepper. Fry a small piece to check for seasoning.

Stuff the peppers and use the extra meat to make meatballs.

Saute the peppers to lightly brown. Place the peppers in a casserole dish and cover with some of the tomato sauce. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake until the peppers are tender and the filling is cooked through, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove and let stand 10 minutes before serving.

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