Padrón Peppers Stuffed with Tetilla Cheese

The perfect tapa

I love this time of year, when you can find the small, flavorful, bright green peppers—the pimientos de Padrón—piled high in the markets in Galicia in northwest Spain. Fried quickly in olive oil and generously seasoned with sea salt, they make a perfect tapa, easy to snack on with a crisp Albariño from the region, or even better, one of the local ciders.

Creamy Tetilla cheese melting inside padrón peppers

Most padrón peppers are mild and sweet, but every now and again you’ll bite into a hot one … and boom!

Varieties of these peppers from the Galician town of Padrón can now be found growing here in the U.S., making them available in many grocery stores through the summer months. It’s worth searching for them online and in specialty stores, along with the creamy Tetilla cheese. If you can’t find them, shishito peppers or mild serranos with Monterey jack cheese could be substituted here.

Fresh from the market, most padrón peppers are mild but watch out, every now and again you’ll bite into one, a hot one—and boom!

For my family, I like to bring two unique flavors of Galicia together by stuffing the padrón peppers with a little Tetilla cheese, a buttery, mild cow’s milk cheese. The milk comes from the Rubia Gallega cow, whose name translates as the Blonde Galician. The result is a warm combination of crunchy fresh pepper and creamy cheese. 

Tetilla cheese comes from the milk of the Blonde Galician Cow.

Pimientos de Padrón con Queso Tetilla
Padrón peppers with Tetilla cheese

Serves 4-6