Choricero pepper

Piment choricero

What it is

The choricero dries whole on strings and is then used inside out: soaked soft, split open, and the flesh scraped off the skin with a spoon, so the skin is discarded and only the pulp reaches the pot. Salsa vizcaína is built on that pulp and onion — the tomato most modern recipes add is a later arrival, not part of it.

In the kitchen

Soak an hour in hot water rather than overnight in cold, and scrape while the pepper is still warm; cold flesh clings to the skin and you lose half of it. Reckon eight to ten peppers for a vizcaína for six.

Goes with

Cod Onion Garlic Olive oil Pork Chorizo Bay leaf Potato

Same species

Ají amarillo Ají panca Ajvar Aleppo pepper Ancho chilli Bell pepper

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