Jimmy Nardello
Capsicum annuum · Italian sweet frying pepper
From one family's garden in southern Italy to the Slow Food Ark of Taste. Thin-skinned, sweet, and extraordinary fried in olive oil.
Jimmy Nardello is one of the great stories in American heirloom horticulture. The Nardello family brought this pepper from Basilicata in southern Italy to Connecticut in 1887, and it stayed in the family for nearly a century before Jimmy Nardello donated seeds to the Seed Savers Exchange in 1983. It is now on the Slow Food Ark of Taste — a list of foods in danger of disappearing — and has become one of the most sought-after frying peppers in existence.
The peppers are long, wrinkled, thin-skinned, and a brilliant red at full ripeness. Fried in olive oil until they blister and collapse, they develop an intense, concentrated sweetness that makes them one of the most satisfying things you can cook. They are also excellent raw, dried, and preserved.
Jimmy Nardello has one of the highest sugar-to-flesh ratios of any sweet pepper. The thin walls mean there is almost nothing between you and pure sweetness. Fresh, it is clean and bright. Fried in olive oil until the skin blisters and the flesh collapses — this is when the variety becomes what it is meant to be. The sugars caramelize against the hot oil and the result is extraordinary.
Why This Plant Is Here
Jimmy Nardello has a specific role in this year's garden: flavor, beauty, pollinator support, story, or seasonal production.