I love the paprika paste (Massa de Pimentão), which is often used in Portuguese cuisine. It’s easy to make and it can give your dish a distinctive flavour. It is common to use red peppers, but you can make it with yellow ones too.
What is Massa de Pimentão?
Paprika paste (Massa de Pimentão) is often used as a seasoning in Portuguese cuisine.
Paprikas (sweet peppers) are delicious in the summer. I love just baking them, but we can also make a paste from it, which is called “Massa de Pimentão.”
You can add the paste to stews as well as marinate with meat or seafood to give it an umami flavour. Once you know how useful it is, you want to keep it in your fridge all the time.
It seems that red paprikas are used more often, but this time I made it with red paprika and yellow paprika.
It’s very easy to make!
How to make Massa de Pimentão
You need 2 tablespoons of salt to 1 medium-sized paprika
How to make:
1. Rinse the paprika and chop them roughly (about 3 to 4 cm square).
2. Add 2 tablespoons of salt to 1 medium-sized paprika.
3. Mix the paprika with salt evenly and let it sit in the refrigerator for two days.
4. As water comes out, drain them, put them in a blender and smash them.
5. Place in a sterilized container and store in the refrigerator
Note:
Sprinkle with salt and leave for two days to get the water out of the paprika. We want to use only paprikas, not the liquid. However, the blender won’t work very well without any liquid, so you may want to add a little water in it. You can do it with a food processor instead.
I normally make the paste with two medium-sized paprikas, and it will become about 220ml of Massa de Pimentão.
If you store it properly in the refrigerator it will last for a couple of months. I still have the paprika paste in the fridge which I made three months ago. It’s still good.
Apart from the method above, it seems that you can roast them in an oven to remove the moisture.
How to use Paprika Paste (Massa de Pimentão)
There are so many ways to use paprika paste. For example;
- As a marinade of chicken or pork (Good if you add garlic or herbs if you like!)
- Marinated shrimp or fish and sautéed
- Add 1 teaspoon of it in your stews or curry when it is simmering
When using it for stewed dishes, the paste itself has a strong salty taste, so maybe don’t add any salt.
It gives a nice flavour without adding any special ingredients to it.
