Youngstown, Ohio is home to many unique, cultural traditions. Many people who reside here are of Italian descent, including my husband’s family, which means there are lots of great family recipes and restaurants with the best homemade red sauce, pizza, and hot peppers in oil here in Northeastern, Ohio.

My husband cans lots of hot peppers close to Labor Day Weekend when the Italian yellow hot fryers (or some may know them by Hungarian Hots) are at their peak of ripeness, firm, and a beautiful light green color. When he brings the bushel into the kitchen the peppery, spicy smell permeates our whole downstairs and reminds me that fall is just around the corner.

The whole process of his mom’s canning recipe takes 2 days and our kitchen is filled with many big steel bowls, boiling pots, and other “secret ingredients” which I cannot divulge! We’ll find pepper seeds on the floor for weeks and our refrigerator will be chock full of beautiful jars with slices of hot peppers ready to be eaten on fresh Italian bread, sandwiches, pasta, or straight from the jar all year long!

Every family and Italian restaurant has its own recipe for hot peppers in oil. It’s always interesting and fun to try new versions and to compare and contrast whose recipe or restaurant has just the right amount of heat, crunch, flavor, etc. Those who make and serve hot peppers take their ability pretty seriously. 

Perhaps I’m biased, but Youngstown is home to some of the best Italian food and my favorite cooks are my in-laws, Jack and June. They certainly know how to find their way around a kitchen! If you ever left a great Italian cook’s kitchen or a restaurant hungry anywhere in Youngstown I’m sure that meant the hot peppers were a little too spicy and you couldn’t finish your meal. Mangiare!