Peri-peri is a spicy sauce synonymous with Portuguese cuisine, but its roots reach further south than the borders of Portugal. “Peri-peri” actually comes from the Swahili word “Pili pili” which refers to the spicy pepper used to make the famous chili sauce. This is because although peri-peri sauce is widely used in Portuguese recipes, it actually originates in Africa.
Portuguese settlers learned of the African bird’s eye pepper while exploring the continent’s African coastline in the 1500s. They combined the chili pepper with European ingredients like garlic, red wine vinegar and paprika spice to create a sauce filled with fusion of African and Portuguese flavours. The sauce soon became popular throughout Portugal, although both Mozambique and Angola claim the sauce as their own. Regardless of the contention surrounding the sauce’s origins, one thing is for sure: peri-peri is now loved all over the world for its fiery flavour.