If you don’t know piquillos, they’re a small, triangularly shaped pepper that grows in the Basque Country in Spain. The best of them (which we continuously seek out) are still roasted over smoldering beech wood. The blackened skins are then carefully peeled by hand, and the peppers are packed without any additives at all. That liquid you see in the jar? It’s just the juice from the freshly roasted peppers. Piquillos are so highly prized that only farms in about three dozen villages can qualify for the official denomination of origin—Spain’s certification of authenticity. And that’s no small thing. In the last decade, piquillos have probably become the most frequently misrepresented pepper on the planet. These days, you’ll find “piquillos” being processed in nearly every corner of the globe. But I’m adamant: the best ones still come from those same small villages in northeastern Spain. They have a smoky, slightly spicy, deliciously distinctive flavor that works wonders on just about anything you’d put a roasted pepper on. Ari says, “I’ve loved piquillo peppers for so long now that I start to assume that everyone else knows them as intimately as I do. Other than when the local peppers are in season at the market here in late summer, we usually go through a jar or two of piquillos a week at our house!”
What we have here is a new way to experience piquillo peppers, and a pretty amazingly good one at that. Piquillo pepper jam—piquillo peppers from the Basque Country, chopped up and cooked down with a bit of sugar. This jam is just as delicious as the peppers themselves. Its bright, bold red color—reminding me of raspberry jam—makes it perfect for anything you’d use pepper jelly for. Ari loves it on toast drizzled with good Spanish olive oil. It’s fantastic on a sandwich with Georgia Grinders Almond Butter, and absolutely awesome folded into a cream cheese and jam omelet. It’s also a great thing to use to deglaze your pan after sautéing fresh scallops, or to accompany roast pork, lamb, or duck. Spread some on a ham sandwich! And of course, for one of the easiest and all-time best hors d’oeuvres, put it atop some handmade cream cheese from the Creamery.
