In the Basque Country they have for decades called one pepper the „garden prawn”. It has nothing to do with the sea. The name came about because when their season arrives they disappear off the plate at the same speed as actual prawns - and the elongated shape helps the comparison.

The pepper is called pipara and is a variety of hot pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) with a very thin skin, an elongated shape and, contrary to expectations, almost no heat at all. Vegetal notes and a light sweetness dominate. Occasionally you find a sharper one, but nothing near what we understand by a hot pepper.

Not every pipara is what you are paying for

Here is the part worth knowing before you pay. Every „Guindilla de Ibarra” is a pipara, but not every pipara is a „Guindilla de Ibarra”. The protected one has its own mark - Eusko Label - and a set of rules prescribing origin, variety, growing method and the appearance of the product.

The rulebook goes down to the centimetre: the edible part must be between 5 and 12 centimetres long, the skin very thin, the texture soft, the colour yellow-green. If you are buying pickled ones and you want that quality, the mark has to be clearly on the label. Everything else is a pipara - which is not bad, but it is not what the higher price is for.

Fresh and pickled are two different products

From the same fruit, but they are not interchangeable. The fresh one has a soft texture and a delicate vegetal taste, and is served whole, fried. The pickled one takes its acidity from vinegar and works as a snack, in salads, with beans, or in the best-known Basque bite - the gilda, where it meets an anchovy and an olive.

So a recipe calling for fried piparas needs fresh ones. And a gilda with a fresh pipara makes no sense.

How to fry them so they do not fall apart

The process is short, but one step decides the whole thing. After washing, the peppers must be thoroughly dried with paper - otherwise the oil spits. Then they are fried whole in a pan with plenty of first-press olive oil, for a few minutes, stirring so they fry evenly.

They are done when the skin starts to wrinkle slightly and small golden patches appear, while the texture stays soft. Drain them on paper and salt them right before serving. You eat them holding the stem.

The most common mistake is an overcrowded pan. Throw them all in at once and the oil cools, and instead of a golden skin you get a boiled pepper. Fry in batches.

Season and buying

Fresh ones are best between June and October. The rest of the year they are mostly available pickled. When choosing fresh, look for firm specimens with smooth thin skin, no bruises and no soft spots. Fresh ones keep in the fridge and should be eaten within a few days, while the pickled ones last a long time - only after opening they must stay covered by the liquid.

There is something worth noticing in this whole story. We are talking about an ordinary pepper fried for three minutes in oil. Behind it stands a registered name, a rulebook with prescribed centimetres, and a mark on the label the buyer pays more for. That is not marketing - it is how one village of market gardens keeps the name of its own product once it reaches foreign shelves.