Fresh local Cubanelle peppers, a long, tapering, thin-walled variety with pale yellow-green skin that occasionally ripens to red. Sweet with just a faint background heat, Cubanelles sit closer to a bell pepper in flavor than to a true hot pepper, and their thin walls mean they cook down quickly rather than holding their shape the way a thicker-walled bell does. They're a staple of Puerto Rican and Cuban cooking, where they're diced into sofrito as a base for rice, beans, and stews, and they're also the pepper of choice for classic Italian-American sausage and peppers, since their mild sweetness balances the richer meat. Beyond sofrito, they fry well in strips, stuff easily given their size and shape, and roast until blistered and soft for sandwiches or on their own. Pairs well with onion, garlic, tomato, and cilantro.