June 1, 2019

Spanish Paprika: A Beginner’s Guide to Pimentón

Go inside any Spanish kitchen and you’re sure to see paprika. It’s used to make tapas taste better and look better, and tapas wouldn’t be the same without it. Find out why, in my beginner’s guide to pimentón!

Some foods go together really well.

Bacon and eggs, mac’ and cheese, maple syrup and everything, and Spanish food and paprika.

Spanish paprika, or pimentón, is the secret ingredient that makes Spanish food so fantastic. This sweet and smoky substance adds a heavenly aroma and barbecued bliss to anything it touches. Be it meat or vegetable, paprika makes everything better.

But why is it… everywhere? It’s hard to find a single dish in Spain that hasn’t at least been in the same room as paprika. I had never really thought about this before. I just accepted that Spain loves paprika and paprika loves Spain, and figured it was just a natural law of the universe.

But it turns out that pimentón is way more interesting than I gave it credit for. Spanish paprika tells you a lot about Spain’s history, culture, and taste buds. So let’s open up the spice draws of our minds and sprinkle some paprika wisdom over the blog as we dive into the world of paprika!

Contents

Spanish Paprika: The Spicy History of Pimentón

There is a deep love affair between Spaniards and their favourite red powder. So many of the most famous Spanish foods would be nothing without pimentón: it’s what gives flavour and colour to chorizo, paella, Galician octopus, sobrasada, patatas bravas, and so many soups and stews!

It’s even used to add flavour to certain types of Spanish cheese!

But how did it get here? For something so ubiquitous, Spanish pimentón has only been around for about 500 years. For 9,000 years before that, the spice remained completely oblivious to Spanish food.

Why is it pimentón, not paprika?

All paprika comes from varieties of the plant capsicum annum—a type of chilli pepper native to South America. It wasn’t until Columbus’ voyages at the end of the 15th century that Europeans first got their teeth into these peppers.

For a man who was convinced he’d arrived in India, history gives a lot of credit to Columbus. He’d left Spain in search of the spice trade of the Indies, and assumed he’d found it in the Americas. (To be fair, it’s not like he could check his location on a GPS, but it seems like a pretty stupid mistake for an explorer to make).

To Columbus, the aji chilli plants of the Caribbean seemed pretty similar to the Asian peppers that Europeans were paying huge sums for back home. So, he named them chilli “peppers” and the name has stuck ever since.

In Spanish, the words pimienta negra (black pepper, from Asia) and pimiento rojo (red bell pepper/capsicum, from South America) still suffer from Columbus getting his plants confused five centuries ago.

From Spain, these ‘peppers’ travelled throughout Europe, eventually making their way to Hungary and the Balkans, then ruled by the Ottoman Empire. Here, pimentón (the powdered spice of pimientos rojos) was renamed paprika.

We know use the word paprika to refer to all of the different kinds of powdered spices made from these capsicum annum plants. And without knowing it, we’re making the same mistake as Columbus. Paprika comes from the Sanskrit pippali—meaning Indian peppers!

Red peppers and capsicums. — The humble “peppers”.

Types of Spanish Paprika

Pimentón ranks among the most popular ingredients in Spanish cooking, competing with saffron for spice rack space.

You’ll find a few different types used in Spain, each with its own dedicated fan base. From dark and smoky to sweet and heady, there’s a paprika out there for everyone!

Just like with Spanish olive oil and wine, the production of paprika is tightly controlled by special Denomination of Origin (D.O.) control boards. You’ll find that the best paprika comes from two parts of the country: Murcia in the east and Extremadura in the west.

While Murcia is famous for sweet paprika, Extremadura makes the smoky stuff that the Spanish love.

Unsmoked Spanish Paprika (D.O. Pimentón de Murcia)

While smoked paprika is the king of the Spanish kitchen, the best un-smoked spice comes from Murcia.

Here, thin and spicy chilli peppers became–over centuries–sweeter and rounder. Known as Bola peppers, these fruits are hand-picked and laid out in the sun to dry.

After a few days, you can crush the dried peppers to make a sweet, bright-red powder. It may not pack the flavour of its smokier cousin, but it adds a great colour and light spice to any meal.

Smoked Spanish Paprika (D.O. Pimentón de la Vera)

In the province of La Vera, Spanish paprika gets it groove on.

Just across the border from Portugal, this part of Extremadura is famous for its intensely smoky spice. It oftens rains here in the harvest season, which means that drying the peppers out under the sun isn’t an option.

So the paprika makers here came up with a better solution. Rather than drying the peppers outside, they would hang them above the fireplaces of their houses. Not only would they become dry enough to make a powder, but the spice gets intensely smoky.

The peppers used here come from the Ocales variety, known for a deep red colour. The paprika they make is the most famous in Spain, and goes into the best quality dishes and cured meats.

Spanish eggs, garnished with paprika. — Even as a garnish, *pimentón* adds colour and spice!

On Paprika Sweet and Spicy

You might notice that Spain does not love spicy food. This could sound confusing given how much Spaniards love paprika, but the truth is that the spice is rarely hot. The climate and soil here make the pepper lose a lot of its capsaicin (the heat-giving chemical in chilli peppers).

However, you’ll find that all Spanish paprika comes in one of three spiciness levels. They are:

Sweet Paprika (Pimentón Dulce)
Mild Paprika (Pimentón Agridulce)
Spicy Paprika (Pimentón Picante)

Bear in mind that even at its spiciest, paprika marked as “picante” is nowhere near as hot as chilli powder or cayenne pepper.

Cooking With Spanish Paprika

It’s hard to think of a classic Spanish dish that doesn’t include paprika! No matter where you look in Spain’s cooking, that familiar red powder is always there to hold your hand and comfort your taste buds.

In general, you can use Spanish paprika to give your foods a burst of colour by adding it to sauces, soups, and stews. You’ll even see it used as a garnish, sprinkled over dishes to give a pop of orangey red!

You’ll find that cooking with paprika adds a smoky, earthy element to the dish, and lifts the barbecued flavours of grilled meats. It goes well with pretty much anything savoury, from meats and poultry to fish as well. Add it near the end of the cook, so that the colour and flavour don’t get worn down.

But if you’re looking to get to grips with pimentón and start cooking up a tapas storm, why not try some traditional recipes that really let it shine? Putting paella to one side, I’ve got a real fondness for Spanish rice dishes, especially when they come bursting with smoky paprika! I find rice to be the perfect vessel for serving up the flavour of paprika, as well as carrying all of that beautiful colour.