How the Calabrian Pepper Became Chefs’ Secret Weapon

If you’ve eaten a specialty pizza anytime in the last decade, chances are you’ve tasted the fruity, smoky heat of a Calabrian chili. In the US, these prized peppers were once considered a niche ingredient prized by nonnas and specialty shop regulars. Today, though, they regularly have pride of place in restaurants of all stripes, suburban grocery stores, and on social media.

“Calabrian chilies are everywhere,” Chef Brian Arruda, founder of Executive Chefs at Home, says. 

Now, “everywhere” includes your chicken sausage. 

In creating The Sausage Project’s Italian Herb Chicken Sausage, chef Kirk Gilbert wanted to lend extra authenticity to the links’ profile. That included adding meticulously curated flavors to the mix, including Calabrian peppers. 

“We wanted to use a pepper along with fennel, garlic, basil, and other herbs and spices so we could genuinely call it an Italian sausage,” Gilbert says. “It would be such a loss if we just used red pepper flakes, so we doubled down and started importing real Calabrian peppers.” 

The Calabrian chili has had a long journey from regional delicacy to its current moment in the spotlight (and your sausage). Here’s how the humble pepper took its rightful place as a ubiquitous flavor bomb. 

From Calabria to the U.S.: A Chili with Global Roots

Like most chilies, Calabrian peppers trace their origins to South America. Christopher Columbus encountered chili peppers in the Caribbean, and Spanish explorers then brought the piquant fruits to Europe in the 1400s. By 1526, they had spread to Spanish-controlled Italy, particularly the southern region of Calabria. 

The variety that became the Calabrian chili flourished in the Mediterranean climate and became essential to Italian cooking. They’re particularly prominent in ’nduja, a colorful and spreadable pork sausage. Unsurprisingly, ’nduja is having its own moment. 

Fast forward to the early 1900s: Calabrian families began immigrating to the US, and with them came their food traditions. Arruda is part of that lineage. Around 1940, his family left the Acri Cosenza area of Calabria to re-settle in Westerly, Rhode Island. Today, the local immigrant community celebrates its own Calabrian-chili-spiced, dry-cured sausage called “soupy” at an annual festival.

“I grew up making homemade sausages and salami that were then cured and hung in the garage,” he says. “And the main ingredient, from a pepper standpoint, is the Calabrian chili.” 

He isn't exaggerating. Arruda’s family ‘nduja recipe is about 10% peppers. “If you have 10 pounds of meat, that's one pound of dried chilies. A huge amount of chilies,” he says. “That's really the overall flavor."

What Makes Calabrian Peppers So Special?

Unlike the straightforward heat of other peppers (like jalapeños), Calabrian peppers have a fiery, multi-layered flavor with fruity notes and smoky undertones.

“The Calabrian chili resembles a sun-dried tomato or roasted tomato because it’s got sweetness,” Arruda says. The peppers’ agreeable heat enhances rather than overwhelms, making them useful across cuisines. These capsaicin kisses are just as at home in an Argentine chimichurri as a Mediterranean chermoula or an all-American mayo. They’ve even crossed into cocktail culture, adding a novel kick to margaritas and Bloody Marys. 

At his Rhinebeck, NY, restaurant Little Goat, Arruda uses them in a sea trout dish with grilled radishes and turnips tossed with sherry vinegar and olive oil. The Sausage Project’s Italian Herb sausages, meanwhile, use Calabrians and their accompanying oil for added richness and subtle heat throughout the links.

While most hot peppers are sold fresh or dried, you’re most likely to find Calabrian peppers packed in oil. When the peppers are gone, the leftover elixir almost has more applications than the pepper itself, says Arruda. Use it to finish bread, add depth to marinades, spike salad dressings, and boost smokiness to grilled veggies. It’s also fantastic drizzled on pizza—possibly its most ubiquitous use in the US. 

Why Chefs (and Shoppers) Are Obsessed with Calabrians

Arruda started working with Calabrians professionally around 2015, after years in traditional French kitchens. But he suspects that pizzerias primed American palates earlier with their 2010s sweet-and-heat obsessions. Think Roberta’s Bee Sting (with soppressata, chili, and honey) and Paulie Gee’s, the first to use Mike’s Hot Honey. Though neither New York pizzeria touts Calabrians specifically, they helped create an appetite for more complex heat beyond standard red pepper flakes. 

Italian restaurants are always hunting for new items to keep their menus interesting beyond the typical herbs and tomatoes, Arruda says. As more adventurous flavors appeared on restaurant menus, diners’ tastes evolved accordingly. “Americans are more knowledgeable about food than ever,” Arruda says, noting today’s proliferation of “foodies,” food influencers, and home cooks eager to experiment. 

By 2020, Calabrian chilies seemed to have reached the mainstream, a designation that was cemented when Allrecipes published an explainer that pushed the peppers into inboxes everywhere. Recipe developer and content creator Kylie Perrotti, who uses the peppers extensively in recipes like Calabrian risotto, witnessed the shift through the online grocery store she ran from 2021 to 2022. 

“I sold Calabrian hot honey and Calabrian chili oil from Tutto Calabria,” she says. “I would sell out almost immediately upon restocking it.” She thinks the spicy peps took off partly because they’re so accessible. “You can find them easily in a variety of shelf-stable forms—oil-packed in jars, pastes, whole dried peppers, or as dried flakes,” she says. 

Adding fuel to the trending chili fire, in 2023, celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis said in a Facebook Live, “I use Calabrian chili paste the way other people use sriracha.” And in 2024, Whole Foods Market’s annual trends report recognized “Complex Heat” as a significant food movement—confirming what Gilbert already knew when he undertook R&D for The Sausage Project: “We’re at the point where people know and understand the Calabrian chili.” 

They also “just taste delicious,” Perotti adds.

A Fiery Future for a Flavor-Packed Pepper

In developing The Sausage Project’s Italian Herb Chicken Sausage, one lesson was clear: a little Calabrian chili goes a long way. Unlike Arruda’s pepper-loaded masterpieces, Gilbert opted for a more subtle punch of spice, Flavor Studding every link with just enough heat to keep things lively. 

So whether you’re throwing diced Italian Herb sausage into a pink sauce, skewering it on a kabob, or bringing it back to its roots in a Tuscan scramble, know that you’re joining a centuries-long story—one that began in Calabria and ends with a perfectly spiced bite… for now.