Why Jimmy Nardello Peppers Are the New ‘It’ Vegetable

After a couple of summers starring Corn Kid and Tomato Girls (2022 and 2023, respectively), there seems to be a fresh produce trend this season. In hot vegetable news, chefs across the country are falling hard for Jimmy Nardello peppers, often affectionately called “Jimmies,” or, better yet, “Nards.”

At 2023 F&W Best New Chef Amanda Shulman’s restaurant Her Place in Philadelphia, she sinks them into a sweet sauce and tosses it with squid ink pasta. Lutèce in DC slides them on top of wagyu steak with sungold tomatoes, Pecan Square Café in Austin stacks them on a saucy porchetta sandwich, Tacos Oscar in Oakland smashes them into a crispy quesadilla, and Kin Khao in SF sometimes tosses them into a hot wok with XO sauce. Fried, grilled, or roasted; thinly shaved or stuffed whole; pickled or jammed; Jimmy Nardello has his name dropped all over menus right now.  

While it might feel like they blew up in the past couple of years, this special variety has been around for a couple of decades. Jimmy Nardello was a real person, although arguably, much of the credit is owed to his mother. Angela Nardello immigrated from the Basilicata region of southern Italy in 1887, bringing these seeds with her to Connecticut. Jimmy was one of 11 children who grew up gardening in their backyard, and he later donated these seeds to the Seed Savers Exchange. Slow Food USA added them to their Ark of Taste catalog in 2005, which helped popularize them in recent years.   

Most chefs agree that the obsession stems from the big fruity flavor, which is super sweet with little heat — Jimmy Nardellos aren’t spicy, they’re the people’s pepper. Many also remark on the thinness of the skins, which char or blister beautifully, then collapse into a silky pile. Of course, it helps that they’re cute on a plate. Jimmy Nardellos run long and skinny, they come in lots of funky kinked shapes, and they’re a bright fire engine red. 

There are definitely still places where chefs are trying these peppers for the first time. 2023 F&W Best New Chef Edgar Rico at Nixta Taqueria in Austin tasted his first Jimmy Nardello last fall, when a farmer offered a sample. Now he’s seeing them all over the city. “Oh my gosh, Jimmies are so hot right now,” the chef reports. “From last year to this year it exploded.” He had doubts — as a Mexican American chef who’s into seasonal produce and specifically chiles, what do you mean, a pepper with no heat? “That’s the best part!” But he was blown away by the complex flavor and citrusy notes. 

Rico was tempted to serve them raw, as crunchy as candy with pepita hummus. But he ultimately decided that fire-roasting and marinating unlocked the biggest flavor, topping a tostada with creamy sweet corn and fragrant lemon basil. 

Chefs in other areas keep digging deeper into the obsession. 2023 F&W Best New Chef Caroline Glover of Annette in Aurora, Colorado has also worked as a farmer, and she’s so into Jimmy Nardellos, she finally started growing her own this year. A farmer gave her a few plants and the push to start. “I love them so much, he was like, ‘You should get high on your own supply!’” Glover jokes. She started working with Jimmy Nardellos about eight years ago in Denver, where they’re increasingly popular every summer. She says it’s fun to see chefs catching up in NYC via Instagram.

Glover likes her peppers raw, pickled, and above all, simply grilled. She slides a pile of blistered peppers onto ultra creamy burrata, aggressively seasons them with a trifecta of briny anchovies, olives, and capers, and serves it with a crusty baguette. “We encourage people to get in there. Rip and dip. Get all the goods,” she says.

New Yorkers seem to have discovered Jimmy Nardello peppers in the last couple of years. Back in June, Nick Curtola at the Four Horsemen in Brooklyn quipped, “Jimmy Nardello peppers are about to be on every menu in NYC.” Last fall, Alison Roman decided they’re cool, “So much change in my life lately, like all of a sudden I’m into Peppers™.” (Emphasis her own.) 

Meanwhile on the West Coast, 1990 F&W Best New Chef Nancy Silverton of Pizzeria Mozza would like to welcome everyone to the pepper party. “New Yorkers love to think they were the first to do everything…” Silverton zings. “But in California, we were way ahead of you guys.” However, she can relate to the thrill of spying something new at the farmers market, where she encountered Jimmy Nardellos seven or eight years ago. “Personally, I had never met a pepper with a first and last name. I loved that.” She used to introduce him to diners and tell the whole story, but these days, that’s not necessary — the fans know “Mr. Nardello.” 

Tumbling across menus, Silverton’s Osteria Mozza gives them a hard sear on the grill, Pizzeria Mozza sometimes sprinkles them on pizza with ’nduja, and Chi Spacca occasionally lets them curl around tuna crudo. Currently, Pizzeria Mozza executive chef Herbert Yuen stuffs them with prawns and double sauces them with rich rouille and bright salsa verde. 

Still, Silverton insists that a bowl full of charred Jimmy Nardellos “is so beautiful and delicious, you don’t even need a parsley sprig.” Jimmy Nardellos have been that pepper. They are still that pepper. And it’s never too late to join the party — they start in the summer, often around July, and get extra sweet in the fall, running as late as October.