Jimmy Nardello Chile Peppers, affectionately called “Jimmies” by those in the know, are an heirloom variety with a great story. History has it that seeds were brought to the US by Guiseppe and Angela Nardello when they immigrated from Italy in the late 1800’s. They grew much of the food they fed their family in their garden, including these chiles. One of their son’s, Jimmy took on the tradition of growing the peppers and saving their seeds. Jimmy passed away in 1983, but before he did, he sent seeds of this heirloom variety to the Seed Savers Exchange. They named the variety after Jimmy. Given its outstanding flavor and cultural value, the Slow Food organization has the Jimmy Nardello chile pepper listed in their Arc of Taste. 

The batch of Jimmies that I have pictured here are a bit atypical as they are all pretty straight. Usually when you find them, there are many twisted and curled peppers mixed in with the straight ones. Still, even the curly ones are easy to deseed.  The seeds are concentrated in the upper third of the pepper. You can cut a slit and remove them from whole peppers or you can cut the pepper into rings and pop out the seeds from the third of the rings which contain seeds. Of course, you can also slice the pepper in half and easily remove the seeds.

Use Jimmies wherever you would use a sweet red pepper, raw or cooked.

The skin is thin, the flesh is thick, and the flavor is top notch. My favorite way of using them is with salt, pepper and olive oil, on the grill. Leaving the stem in place provides a handle to make them finger food. This way, their standalone incredible flavor can be fully appreciated. But, again, use them in any application where you would use a sweet red pepper.