Apulica — Taste Travel Together

APULICA / FRUIT, VEGETABLES AND PULSES

Altino sweet pepper

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

Apulica editorial team · Sources checked:

In brief

History and origin

Altino is a small town in the province of Chieti, built on a rocky spur overlooking the Aventino valley. Its name belongs to a small red pepper that locals also call paesanello. The Slow Food Foundation suggests a possible origin: it may have arrived with the Slavic communities that settled around Chieti in the fifteenth century, bringing from the Balkans the use of paprika and the habit of grinding peppers into powder.

The Municipality of Altino points to a written record from 1752: a notarial deed of sale, quoted in a study on the history of crops in Abruzzo, names the plant as "peparoli". The same study tells how, in the Sangro valley, dried peppers were pounded in large wooden mortars called piloni, and the powder seasoned pasta and cured meats.

To keep this crop alive, the Association of the Altino Sweet Pepper and Serranella Oasis was founded on 10 April 2009. Today the pepper is a Slow Food Presidium and appears on the national list of traditional agri-food products of Abruzzo.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Peperone dolce di Altino · Comune di Altino — Associazione del Peperone dolce di Altino Oasi di Serranella · Masaf — Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, XXVI revisione (2026)

Area and method of production

The Presidium names as its production area the municipalities of Altino, Archi, Perano, Roccascalegna, Casoli, Sant'Eusanio del Sangro and Atessa, all in the province of Chieti, in the band of hills between the Sangro and Aventino rivers. The Municipality of Altino notes that Bomba also belongs to this area of traditional growing.

Picking begins in the first ten days of August, once the pods have turned fully red. The ripe peppers are threaded one by one with needle and string at the stalk, forming long necklaces called crolli, which hang in the open air for several days. When no moisture is left, they are put in the oven for a few minutes or passed quickly through boiling oil.

Growers follow production rules drawn up by the association. The Presidium, supported by the local action group Gal Maiella Verde, helps them select and keep their seed carefully and use sustainable growing methods, so that the old variety stays true to itself year after year.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Peperone dolce di Altino · Comune di Altino — Associazione del Peperone dolce di Altino Oasi di Serranella · Consorzio Tutela Vini d'Abruzzo — Il territorio e i prodotti tipici

How to recognise it

It is a small, horn-shaped pepper, deep red when ripe. What sets it apart at a glance is the way it grows: the fruits point upwards, which is why the local dialect calls it "a cocce capammonte", head up.

Once dried it tastes sweet, without the heat of chilli. It comes whole, hanging in its crolli, or crumbled, or ground to powder in the piloni. The powder keeps a bright red colour, which it passes on to bread and pasta doughs and to the meat of cured sausages.

The harvest is in summer, but the dried pepper keeps well and can be found all year round: anyone visiting Altino in winter will still see it hanging in homes and cellars.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Peperone dolce di Altino · Comune di Altino — Associazione del Peperone dolce di Altino Oasi di Serranella · Consorzio Tutela Vini d'Abruzzo — Il territorio e i prodotti tipici

In the kitchen

Toasted and crumbled, the Altino pepper is scattered over pasta dishes, salt cod, vegetables and pork. Ground, it seasons pasta and goes into cured sausages, such as the local salsicce and the ventricina of the Vasto area; mixed into dough, it turns bread and fresh pasta red.

The Municipality of Altino lists some home uses: pasta with garlic, oil and pepper, pizza e ffójje with greens, salted sardines, eggs with peppers ("peparuole e ove") and pulses. There is also a pasta sauce in which the pepper is lightly fried with fresh lard and garlic.

These are simple dishes in which the pepper works as a spice: a few flakes are enough to add colour and a sweet, toasted aroma.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Peperone dolce di Altino · Comune di Altino — Associazione del Peperone dolce di Altino Oasi di Serranella

Where to taste it

The natural place to discover it is Altino, together with the neighbouring Presidium towns between the Sangro and the Aventino. Every summer the town centre hosts the Altino Sweet Pepper Festival with its cooking contest between districts, the Palio culinario delle contrade; the first edition took place on 12 and 13 September 2009.

During the contest each district cooks its own pepper menu, reworking old recipes or trying new ones, and a jury of experts names the winner. Houses, stalls and lanes are hung with garlands of peppers, onions, tomatoes and squash, and the small squares fill with music and folk dancing.

The festival is held in the old town partly to make it better known: from the lanes of the upper quarter the view runs down the Sangro valley to the sea and, on the other side, to the Majella massif. Close by is the Lago di Serranella regional nature reserve, with which the association works to protect local varieties.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Peperone dolce di Altino · Comune di Altino — Associazione del Peperone dolce di Altino Oasi di Serranella

Protection

When

Where

Abruzzo

Read more