Cavatelli with Peperoni Cruschi and Pecorino

This is the kind of authentic Italian recipes I love: few good quality ingredients and simplicity 🙂

It’s a typical recipe of Lucania, an area mostly part of Basilicata region, and the fact I managed to find also the Pecorino of Moliterno made it really authentic 🙂

But the main ingredient is the peperone crusco, a very particular ingredient: it’s a type of sweet pepper typical of that area, which is dried, and to make it crunchy (“crusco“) you have to fry it for very few seconds (5-10 seconds, no more, otherwise it burns and gets bitter) in oil. But in this case I found some sold already “cruschi”.

It can be eaten as a snack, or it can enrich a lot of recipes, simply crumbled or you can make a powder from it.

Then the pasta: usually homemade pasta is used, especially cavatelli or strascinati…