Piquillo Pepper, the Sweet Flame-Roasted Pod of Lodosa

A small triangular red pepper that almost always reaches you roasted, peeled and in a jar.

By the Scovidex teamUpdated Oct 18, 20266 sources

One glossy deep red piquillo pepper, wide at the shoulder and narrowing to a sharp pointed tip.

Short answer

Sweet, with no published Scoville figure: the official spec calls its flavor sweet.

35–50 g pods, no longer than 10 cm
Grown and roasted in 8 towns of southern Navarra

Species: C. annuum¹
Origin: Lodosa, Navarra, Spain¹
Flavor: Sweet, flame-roasted¹
Uses: Roasted, jarred, stuffed¹

On this page

1What does the official spec say a piquillo is?
2Is a piquillo pepper hot at all?
3Which towns can grow a real piquillo de Lodosa?
4How do piquillos go from field to jar?
5Should you buy piquillos in a jar or on a tray?
6How do you judge a jar of piquillos?
7When are piquillos sown, planted and picked?
8How do you cook with piquillo peppers?
9What goes wrong with piquillos?
10Your next step with piquillos

What does the official spec say a piquillo is?

A small, triangular, sweet red pepper with a sharp tip and thin flesh. Spain's protected designation of origin, the PDO Pimiento del Piquillo de Lodosa, writes the fresh pod's measurements into its specification¹:

≤ 10 cmlength, as a rule¹

4–5 cmaverage width¹

35–50gaverage weight of one pod¹

0.3 cmthickness of the flesh¹

The same text describes a strong red color, a triangular shape ending in a sharp point, two or three seed chambers, and fruit that hangs from the plant¹. Hold one up and you see why cooks love it for filling: a wide open shoulder and a pointed, closed tip that holds a stuffing in place.

Those thin walls are why you almost never see a fresh piquillo in a shop. Growers raise it for roasting and peeling, and it comes to your kitchen ready to use.

Is a piquillo pepper hot at all?

No, or so little that the people who define it don't mention heat. The PDO specification lists the flavor as sweet and repeats that the roasted pepper keeps its sweet taste¹. It gives no Scoville figure, and we haven't found a primary source that measured one, so this entry shows no number.

For you, that means a piquillo works like a red bell pepper with more flavor: a whole jar won't make your dish hot. You can serve it to children, to a guest who avoids chiles, or to yourself on a night when you want color and sweetness without a burn. If a recipe from northern Spain asks for piquillos, it wants that sweetness and the smoke from the roasting, not heat. If you want warmth with the same sweetness, the dried ñora from Murcia is the Spanish pepper to look at next.

Which towns can grow a real piquillo de Lodosa?

Only eight, and you can check the town on many jar labels. The PDO limits growing and processing to municipalities in the Ribera Baja of Navarra, along the Ebro and Ega rivers¹:

The 8 towns of the PDO zone

Andosilla
Azagra
Cárcar
Lerín
Lodosa
Mendavia
San Adrián
Sartaguda

The specification ties the pepper's quality to the place. The zone is semi-arid, with about 400 mm of rain a year, hot dry summers from May to September and strong swings between day and night temperatures, which the text credits for how the pepper ripens¹. Soils are brown limestone soils on marl, with wide alluvial plains along the rivers¹.

It's an old crop there, so the jar you open carries more than a century of local practice. The specification cites a mention of canned piquillos from the area in "El Practicón," a cookbook from 1893, and notes that Navarra's government first authorized the designation in 1986¹. The Spanish peppers hub puts the piquillo next to the country's other named pods, and the peppers by country map shows where Spain sits in the bigger story.

How do piquillos go from field to jar?

By hand, by flame, and without water. The PDO sets a rule at each step, and those rules explain the flavor you taste¹.

The PDO chain from field to jar

Hand-pickedEvery 10 to 15 days, at the right ripeness
Rested under coverA few days to deepen the red
Roasted over direct flameFuel oil and diesel are not allowed
Peeled, cored and seededNever soaked or washed in water or chemicals
Sorted by color and size
Packed whole, in strips or piecesLiquid at most 3 % of the jar

Four small triangular red peppers blistering over blue and orange gas flames on a black grate, with one peeled glossy pepper on a white plate. — Direct flame chars the thin skin; peeling it off without water keeps the smoky taste on the flesh.¹

The no-water rule matters more than it sounds, and you can taste the difference side by side. Rinsing a roasted pepper washes away the charred bits and the juices that carry the smoke, so a piquillo from the PDO keeps flavor a rinsed pepper loses. When you roast red peppers at home, you can copy that: peel them with your fingers and a paper towel instead of under the tap. The pepper roasting page covers the broiler and grill methods.

Should you buy piquillos in a jar or on a tray?

The PDO allows two forms, and they don't keep the same way. "Asado al natural" is the roasted pepper packed in bags or trays with no further processing, while the canned version goes into jars or tins that the factory then sterilizes with heat and cools fast¹. Both forms must be processed inside the same eight-town zone where the peppers grow¹.

For you, the choice comes down to timing. Pick the tray for a dinner this week, since it skips the sterilizing step and has to stay cold; pick the jar for your pantry shelf. Each form comes whole, in regular strips or in irregular pieces, and the label has to say which presentation you're buying¹.

How do you judge a jar of piquillos?

Look for the marks first, then the grade. Both tell you what you're paying for. A PDO jar carries the name "Pimiento del Piquillo de Lodosa," the official PDO logo and a numbered back label that the regulating council issues; nobody can reuse the numbered label¹. Only two commercial grades qualify, Extra and First, and the spec sets them apart with numbers¹.

What separates the two PDO grades of whole piquillos
Rule	Extra	First
Total defects	10 % or less	20 % or less
Seeds per pepper	20 or fewer	40 or fewer
Firm peppers	90 % or more	80 % or more
Loose pieces in a jar of whole peppers	None	None

Source: ¹

The spec counts sunburnt patches, missing pieces, peppers split wide open and black, rotten cores as defects¹. For stuffing, pay for Extra: you'll get more whole, firm pods with few seeds to pick out. For a sauce or a spread, First grade or the strips cost less and taste the same once blended.

When are piquillos sown, planted and picked?

Spring sowing, summer growth and a long picking season. The specification gives the calendar growers in the zone follow¹.

First week of March
Sown in seedbeds
Seedlings start under cover.¹
From the second half of April
Transplanted
Rows 0.90 m apart with plants 0.30 m apart, about 37,000 plants per hectare.¹
Through the summer
Light watering
Light irrigation every 10 to 12 days and low doses of nitrogen.¹
Harvest
Picked by hand
Every 10 to 15 days, as each round of fruit ripens.¹

If you want to grow piquillos yourself, that calendar is a useful model: start seeds indoors in early spring and plant out once the soil warms in late spring. Pods that hang low on a compact plant need a clean mulch underneath so they don't rot where they touch wet soil.

How do you cook with piquillo peppers?

Straight from the jar, mostly. They're already roasted and peeled, so your job is to warm them or fill them, and a weeknight dinner can be on your table in twenty minutes. Treat these amounts as kitchen starting points and adjust them to your taste.

Stuffed piquillos: fill each pod with about a tablespoon of soft cheese, salt cod or rice, then bake or pan-fry until warm. Extra-grade pods hold their shape best. More peppers that suit filling are on the peppers for stuffing list.
Tapas: lay strips on toast with olive oil, a little garlic and flaky salt.
Sauce: blend a jar of drained piquillos with olive oil and a splash of sherry vinegar for a red sauce to serve with fish or eggs.
Salads and rice: slice them into strips and stir them in at the end so they keep their color.

Save the liquid from the jar. It's mostly pepper juice, and a spoonful seasons a vinaigrette. Once you open a jar, keep it in your fridge with the peppers covered by their liquid, and use them within the time the label gives you.

What goes wrong with piquillos?

Most problems trace back to the jar you picked or how you handled the pods. Each fix below takes you less than a minute.

Problems and fixes

Pods tear when you stuff them: you bought strips or First grade. For stuffing, buy whole Extra grade, which allows the fewest defects.¹
Too many seeds in the filling: Extra allows up to 20 seeds per pepper, First up to 40, so rinse the inside lightly or switch grades.¹
The stuffing comes out watery: drain the pods on a towel for ten minutes before you fill them.
A sharp, sour taste: some jars add an acid to lower the pH; the PDO caps that liquid at 3 % of the contents, so check the label for added acid.¹
You roasted a hot pepper by mistake and your fingers sting: Poison Control lists warm water, vegetable oil or diluted vinegar soaks for skin.²

Your next step with piquillos

Buy one jar of whole Extra-grade piquillos and stuff half of them tonight; blend the rest into a sauce. You'll learn in one meal how much smoke and sweetness the pepper brings, and you'll know which grade you want next time. If your shop doesn't stock them, the piquillo swap list gives you other sweet red peppers and how to roast them so they come close.