Polizzi Generosa Pepper

Slow Food Presidium

Italy

Sicily

Vegetables and vegetable preserves

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Polizzi Generosa Pepper

Polizzi Generosa has slightly more than 3,000 inhabitants, and over 40 churches. A stone village clinging to a ridge in the heart of the Madonie, it preserves an extraordinary wealth of culture, architecture (churches and aristocratic palaces) and food, such as Badda beans (a Slow Food Presidium), hazelnuts and a pepper known in the local dialect as pipiddu. Small, with a conical shape of varying regularity, it has a bright green skin that turns red when ripe. Most unusually, this pepper grows upwards; instead of hanging down under the leaves, the pod points up. The history of this traditional pepper can only be reconstructed thanks to oral testimony; it seems that in the past, the seasonal hazelnut pickers in Polizzi Generosa were rewarded for their work with flavorful snacks of bread topped with olives, pecorino cheese and roasted pipiddu.
Cultivation requires great patience: Each plant must be supported because otherwise the weight of the fruit would bend it down. The seeds are sown in April and the seedlings are planted out in the fields between the end of May and June. Flowering starts in July and continues until October. The single white flowers grow from a sturdy upward-pointing stalk. The harvest takes place in stages, starting in July and continuing until November.
The peppers can be eaten raw, in salads, but the most typical local preparation is grilled peppers dressed with extra-virgin olive oil, basil and wine vinegar. The Presidium is also recovering some traditional recipes from the older people in the village, including a pepper sauce and peppers preserved in oil.

Season

The harvest lasts from July to November.

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The decline of vegetables growing on Polizzi Generosa’s agricultural land is linked to the mountainous terrain, which forces local farmers to go to heroic lengths to cultivate their crops. An increasingly standardized market and the spread of hybrid seeds, which are more productive and grow more vigorously, have also reduced interest in local production, which risks being abandoned. Thanks to a group of farmers, many very young, but all convinced of the importance of the local agricultural resources, this pepper variety is now being revived. The older growers have made seeds available and a nursery produces the seedlings for the producers. Additionally, a small but highly efficient shared workshop makes it possible to process the peppers, as well as other local foods, and turns out peppers in oil, caponata, beans and more.

Production area
Polizzi Generosa municipality, Palermo province

Presidium supported by
Municipality of Polizzi Generosa
Producers

Agriturismo Cuca
di Maria Concetta Muratore
Località Cuca Mulini
Polizzi Generosa (Pa)
Tel. +39 340 7839253
agriturismocuca@alice.it

Roberta Billitteri
Via Vitaliano Brancati, 15
Castellana Sicula (Pa)
Tel. +39 340 5624176
ro.billitteri@libero.it

Francesco Mangialino
Via Garibaldi, 104
Polizzi Generosa (Pa)
Tel. +39 328 4841567
fra.mangialino@libero.it

Vincenzo Pagano
Largo Portella delle Piante, 1
Polizzi Generosa (Pa)
Tel. +39 329 2145255
fabiola.12@hotmail.it

Antonino Sausa
Contrada Suvarito
Polizzi Generosa (Pa)
Tel. +39 328 0389249
nino.sausa@libero.it
Presidium Producer Coordinator
Francesco Mangialino
Tel. +39 328 4841567
fra.mangialino@libero.it


Slow Food Presidium Coordinator
Carmelo Giunta
Tel. +39 339 4457038
casalvecchiogeraci@libero.it
The decline of vegetables growing on Polizzi Generosa’s agricultural land is linked to the mountainous terrain, which forces local farmers to go to heroic lengths to cultivate their crops. An increasingly standardized market and the spread of hybrid seeds, which are more productive and grow more vigorously, have also reduced interest in local production, which risks being abandoned. Thanks to a group of farmers, many very young, but all convinced of the importance of the local agricultural resources, this pepper variety is now being revived. The older growers have made seeds available and a nursery produces the seedlings for the producers. Additionally, a small but highly efficient shared workshop makes it possible to process the peppers, as well as other local foods, and turns out peppers in oil, caponata, beans and more.

Production area
Polizzi Generosa municipality, Palermo province

Presidium supported by
Municipality of Polizzi Generosa
Producers

Agriturismo Cuca
di Maria Concetta Muratore
Località Cuca Mulini
Polizzi Generosa (Pa)
Tel. +39 340 7839253
agriturismocuca@alice.it

Roberta Billitteri
Via Vitaliano Brancati, 15
Castellana Sicula (Pa)
Tel. +39 340 5624176
ro.billitteri@libero.it

Francesco Mangialino
Via Garibaldi, 104
Polizzi Generosa (Pa)
Tel. +39 328 4841567
fra.mangialino@libero.it

Vincenzo Pagano
Largo Portella delle Piante, 1
Polizzi Generosa (Pa)
Tel. +39 329 2145255
fabiola.12@hotmail.it

Antonino Sausa
Contrada Suvarito
Polizzi Generosa (Pa)
Tel. +39 328 0389249
nino.sausa@libero.it
Presidium Producer Coordinator
Francesco Mangialino
Tel. +39 328 4841567
fra.mangialino@libero.it


Slow Food Presidium Coordinator
Carmelo Giunta
Tel. +39 339 4457038
casalvecchiogeraci@libero.it

Territory

StateItaly
RegionSicily