EIGHT YEARS AGO, Noah Robbins was at Franny’s—the now-closed Brooklyn locavore pizzeria—when he first tried a blazing-red pepper he loved. “I was just like, This pepper is insane,” he recalls. He asked what it was, found out it was called a Jimmy Nardello, and, he says, “got pretty obsessed.” Chefs, especially the types who fetishize hyperseasonal produce and treat Greenmarket farmers like celebrities, tend to be obsessive about this pepper too: At Claud, in the East Village, Nardello peppers have been served with blackened swordfish. At Daniel, seared hamachi has been paired with Nardello farci. Missy Robbins has prepared them simply—charred and marinated—at Misi. On Instagram in September, Alison Roman wrote, “They are better than you think they possibly could be, I promise.” Chef Nico Villaseñor, who until recently cooked…
