Pizza pizza Thursday - Manzano pepper pizza

I found some manzano/rocoto peppers last weekend. I enjoy them, they are meaty and juicy and with similar flavour and aroma of a habanero chile, but with maybe half the heat. They are from a totally different chile family - pubescens - and they have black seeds rather than the more-common white seeds. I grabbed a handful since their season is short and easily missed.

I gave a couple to a good friend at work, who shares my love of habanero.

Then I made a manzano pizza tonight, with garlics, rosemary, and grape tomatoes. I used ONE manzano chile.



O M G



One bite of the first slice told me that I was in trouble. I immediately texted my friend to alert her that these were not normal manzano peppers, and to be careful...

I spent a lot of time picking the peppers off the pizza. I can handle habanero, but this was well in excess of that heat level.

Maybe they somehow hybridized with ghost peppers?

Wow. Simply wow. I have one left, not sure if I should pop it into a bottle of vodka/everclear (so I can use it by the teaspoon, or drop...). I will save the seeds...