Christopher Columbus brought the pepper back to Spain after discovering it on his second voyage to the Americas. The story goes that he served it to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella who had found it too spicy. However, the monks of Guadalupe took a liking to it and spread it throughout Extremadura and then across Spain. They were planted in many regions including Murcia which has a warm and sunny climate which allowed these peppers to be sun dried after harvest before being ground. In Extremadura however it was prone to rain around harvest time so they developed a different drying method. They laid the peppers on a fire and dried them using wood smoke. This is what gave the pimentón from this region its distinctive rich, smoky flavour. Today the peppers are dried on racks above an oak fire and are turned manually by hand every day for about two weeks. Next they are taken to the mill where they are slowly ground using stone wheels into what is Pimentón de La Vera.
There are three varieties of Pimentón: Pimentón Dulce which is sweet and mild, Pimentón Agridulce which is slightly hotter and darker in colour and Pimentón Picante which is hot and made from several different peppers. Pimentón de La Vera is held in such high regard that its production is controlled by a denomination of origin. Pimentón and paprika are essentially the same, being made from ground peppers. However, the smoke drying process used to make Pimentón de La Vera imparts such rich, deep smoky and earthy flavours that the two should never be interchanged. Pimentón is used widely in Spanish cooking from adding the spice to chorizo sausage and other meats, as well as being used commonly in a wide range of dishes from across the country.
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