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Neapolitan papaccella pepper

Slow Food Presidium · PAT · Fruit, vegetables and pulses · Campania

Apulica editorial team · Sources checked:

In brief

History and origin

The papaccella is a small pepper that has belonged to the market gardens of the plain north-east of Naples for centuries. Its name, in many dialect forms such as paprecchie or pupaccelle, describes a round, flattened pod, and the word riccia (curly) refers to the deep ribs on its surface.

The plots where it was grown, called parule, lay mostly around Brusciano, where many families still bear the surname Papaccio. They stood next to farmsteads that made vinegar for preserves, drawn from a light, sharp red wine known as vino piccirillo, made from vines trained on trees. The preserver, called the ciutunaro, plunged whole peppers into vinegar inside large wooden casks, the rancelloni.

As hybrid peppers that look almost identical spread, the original variety became rare. The Campania Region recovered its germplasm and reproduced the seeds in an experimental field; today the Slow Food Presidium growers plant them, and the papaccella is listed among Campania's traditional products.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Papaccella napoletana · Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura: Peperone papaccella (prodotti tradizionali) · Masaf — Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, XXVI revisione (2026)

Area and method of production

The Presidium area is the agro acerrano-nolano, the fertile plain between the provinces of Naples and Caserta. Papaccelle, in different shapes and local variants, are however grown throughout Campania.

Sowing runs from the second half of March to the first ten days of July, staggering the plantings to obtain fruit over a long period. Harvesting is done by hand from the second half of June to early November: a very long calendar that follows the fruit as it ripens from green to yellow or red.

Presidium growers plant the original seeds reproduced by the Region every year and follow production rules focused on quality and environmentally sound farming. Part of the harvest goes into the pantry: whole pods are preserved in red wine vinegar or in oil, as the old farmsteads used to do.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Papaccella napoletana · Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura: Peperone papaccella (prodotti tradizionali)

How to recognise it

The true papaccella is small: it never exceeds 8-10 centimetres in diameter. The pod is round, flattened at the ends and marked by very pronounced ribs, and the flesh is thick, fleshy and crunchy.

The colours are bold: from deep green to sunny yellow, with yellow fruits usually a little larger, or from green to wine red. The aroma is intense, with fresh, grassy notes.

What sets it apart from similar peppers is the sweetness of its flesh. The regional sheet notes that there are more or less spicy ecotypes, used mainly for preserves, but the Neapolitan papaccella of the Presidium is sweet and very aromatic. On market stalls, where almost identical hybrids abound, small size and deep ribs are the first clues to look for.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Papaccella napoletana · Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura: Peperone papaccella (prodotti tradizionali)

In the kitchen

Fresh, the papaccella is roasted, sautéed or baked. The classic filling combines tuna or salted anchovies, olives, breadcrumbs, raisins, pine nuts, capers and piennolo cherry tomatoes: a dish that tells the story of the whole Campanian pantry.

Its most famous role, however, is pickled. Pods preserved in red wine vinegar are the main ingredient of insalata di rinforzo, the dish of the Neapolitan Christmas holidays, a family dish that brings the preserved flavours of summer to the table.

Every part of Campania then has its own variants: papaccelle dressed with tomato sauce, served as a side dish, used fresh or taken from the jar. In all these versions the flesh stays full and crunchy, and its grassy aroma carries through the dish.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Papaccella napoletana · Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura: Peperone papaccella (prodotti tradizionali)

Where to taste it

The place to discover it is the agro acerrano-nolano, the towns of the plain between Naples and Caserta and especially the Brusciano area, linked to the papaccella even through family surnames.

From July until the first cold days the markets of Naples fill with colourful peppers: this is the time to look for fresh curly papaccelle, with an eye trained on the signs that tell them apart from hybrids. Around Christmas you find it in its best-loved form instead, pickled, in the insalata di rinforzo on Neapolitan tables.

Travellers in Campania can combine the market gardens of the Nola and Acerra area with a visit to Vesuvius and to Naples itself, choosing summer for the fresh pepper and winter for the preserves.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Papaccella napoletana

Protection

When

Where

Campania