If you like to add some heat to your recipes, you probably keep a jar of dried red pepper flakes in your spice cabinet. While they do add zing to food, they don't do much in regard to actual flavor. For flavor plus heat, look to Calabrian chile peppers, which you can find in many forms, such as preserved in oil, pickled, and dried into flakes or powders.
These little red peppers come from the Calabria region of Italy, the most southwestern part of the country's mainland, and the section closest to Sicily. Some describe Calabrian peppers as having a sweet kind of heat, with detectable fruity notes, a little smokiness, and a good amount of spice.
