Regional Recipe
Peperoni Cruschi
Crisp fried dried sweet peppers
These are dried sweet peppers fried for a few seconds until they turn brittle and shatter like a chip.
Tested and written by Erika A. Cochran
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Prep
10 minutes
Cook
10 minutes
Serves
4
Difficulty
Easy
Region
Basilicata
What you’ll need
Ingredients
Written for 4.
Showing quantities at 1× the original recipe.
- 12 dried sweet peppers (peperoni di Senise or similar)
- ⅞ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- Flaky sea salt
At the stove
Instructions
Wipe the peppers clean and remove the stems and seeds.
Heat the oil in a small pan to a moderate temperature — hot, but not smoking.
Fry two or three peppers at a time for 5–10 seconds only, turning once.
Lift them out the moment they darken slightly and go translucent, and drain on paper.
Salt them while hot. They crisp as they cool.
Eat as they are, or crumble over pasta, beans or potatoes.
Recipe notes
Seconds matter: a moment too long and they turn bitter.
Keep the flavoured frying oil and use it on vegetables.
Context
Peperoni cruschi are made from sweet peppers dried on strings in Basilicata, most associated with Senise, and are used both as a snack and as a seasoning.
Sources: Editorial adaptation of documented Basilicata regional cooking, Casa Magnelli Kitchen
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