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Peperone di Senise IGP
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Identity Card
Name: Peperone di Senise IGP (Indicazione Geografica Protetta- Protected Geographical Indication)
Type of Product: the Senise pepper is the fruit of a plant originating from the Americas but which in Basilicata has found the ideal climate and terrain. It has thus become a typically Italian product and is the protagonist of the area's cuisine.
Colour and consistency: Red in colour, the Senise pepper has a slightly elongated form and thin flesh. It contains very little water, rendering it particularly well suited to being dried and turned into powder.
Area of production: in addition to the village from which it takes its name, the Senise pepper is cultivated in a number of villages in the provinces of Potenza and Matera, in the heart of Basilicata. |
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FRESH OR DRIED, IT IS THE PROTAGONIST OF BASILICATA'S CUISINE |
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Originally from the America's, the Senise pepper is cultivated in a number of villages in the provinces of Matera and Potenza, in the heart of Basilicata. These include Senise, the village that gives the pepper its name and which stands on the slopes of a hill in the valley of the river Sinni. Used in the past for flavouring peasant dishes, the Senise pepper is today a speciality of the Basilicata region and has been produced with IGP status (Indicazione Geografica Protetta- Protected Geographical Indication) since 1996.
Hand-picked in the month of August, when the fruit acquires the classic brick-red colour, this vegetable may be eaten fresh, used for preparing rustic sauces and side-dishes, but is also excellent dried. It is in fact sol in "serte", namely the traditional fruit necklaces left to dry in the sun, or in powder form.
The transformation into powder, which still takes placed in the red stone water-powered mills dates back centuries (to the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries) when the difficulties involved in commercialising this product available in abundance made it necessary. The ultra-fine powder obtained recalled saffron powder, and it is for this reason that even today the pepper is still known in the local dialect as "zafarno". In powder form, the Sinise pepper is often used for making local cheeses and cured meats, but also for flavouring soups and rustic first course dishes.
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