We’re in the midst of summer here in San Francisco. Days are sunny and hot, and evenings can be just as warm and very clear. Today ML and I took our dog, Sophia, down to the farmers market at the Ferry building for a walk. There we stumbled across the Happy Quail Farms pepper stand selling pimientos de padron! ML and I have been looking for these pepper for a while now and were excited to find these at the farmers market. These peppers are native to a small municipality in Galicia called Padron. These small green peppers are usually mild and sweet, except one in every handful turns out to have a surprising kick to it. They make a great appetizer or tapas and we cooked them up on this hot summer night along with some paella.

Serves 2

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet. Add about 4 oz of pimientos de padron to the skillet and cook until the peppers skin begins to blister and turn spotty black. Remove from the skillet, sprinkle some coarse salt and serve.

A great starter when making Paella and serve with a dry white wine like a Torrontes.