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Red bell pepper
Capsicum annuum · Fruit vegetable
3 varieties40 pairings
The red bell pepper is the fully ripened, sweet-fleshed fruit of Capsicum annuum (Grossum Group) — a heatless, blocky chilli relative prized for its sugary crunch, candy-red skin and faintly grassy bite. It is eaten raw in salads, roasted until smoky-sweet, grilled, sautéed and pureed into sauces.
Picking a good onedrag
Taut and glossyShrivelled and soft
Sheen offRoast whole, grill or stuff; the skin still peels clean.Still firm
Skin and sheenBright, sheen going flat
Wall firmnessFirm, with a little give
Stem and calyxGreen fading, cut end dry
Smell at the stemStill clean, fainter
What to look for, from taut and glossy to shrivelled and soft.
What one gives you
82%
Usable yield
119 g · stem, seeds and core out
145 g
Typical weight
one specimen
Keeping ittap a band
A domestic fridge holds it about 3× longer than the counter.
Humidity
90–95%
Crisper drawer, unwashed — softening is just water loss. Wash it when you cut it.
Airflow
Low
Moving air shrivels it. Use a perforated or loosely folded bag; a sealed one sweats.
The one you can ignore
Non-climacteric — makes almost no ethylene, barely responds to anyone else's. It can share a drawer with the apples. Dry moving air is what costs you a pepper.