Guérande salt with Piment d'Espelette

Guérande salt with the gentle heat of the Basque Country

Guérande salt with Piment d'Espelette combines grey Atlantic sea salt with the mild chili of the Basque Country – fruity and warm, never bitingly hot. Blended by L'Atelier du Sel in organic quality: Sel de Guérande au Piment d'Espelette, as it is called on the French label.

Guérande salt with Piment d'Espelette is the fieriest blend from the Morel et Le Chantoux workshop – and yet a gentle one: the Basque chili variety provides warmth and a fruity bell pepper aroma, not a stinging fire. Gilles and Matthieu blend it with their hand-harvested grey sea salt from the Mès basin near Assérac.

On the tongue, you first taste the mild salt, then the spice builds up: fruity, aromatic, piquant, with an echo of dried bell pepper and southern sun. The heat remains friendly – it knocks on the door instead of kicking it in. Anyone who has discovered Piment d'Espelette reaches for the pepper mill less often: the blend seasons and warms in one go.

Seasons chicken, fish, and everything from the grill

Espelette salt belongs everywhere a warm, fruity seasoning is required: on roast chicken, tuna and salmon steaks, red meat, vegetable stir-fries, and omelets.

It is particularly good on roast chicken that is slowly becoming crispy at 180 degrees – add the salt only at the end so the bell pepper aroma remains lively. Just as good: over scrambled eggs with tomatoes, on marinated sardines, or in a dressing for a summer salad with grilled bell peppers. Baked potatoes and sweet potato wedges also benefit from a pinch just before serving. And it is a must for a snack: a pinch elevates the Paté basque with Piment d'Espelette from Maison Ederki just as much as the liver pâtés from Les Conservistes.

If you prefer herbal seasoning rather than piquant, the herb salt from Guérande from the same workshop is ready – together, the two cover half the summer on the grill.

A chili with a pedigree from ten villages

Piment d'Espelette is a regional specialty itself: the mild chili variety has had protected origin status (now AOP) since the year 2000 and grows only in a handful of municipalities around the Basque village of Espelette.

After the harvest, the pods are traditionally dried on the facades of the white houses – the red strings are as much a part of the townscape as the church tower. In the Basque Country, the chili traditionally seasons piperade, the stew made of bell peppers, tomatoes, and onions – a hint of how well it goes with vegetables. The ground chili is then added to the grey Sel de Guérande: hand-harvested, neither washed nor treated, and dried in a solar dryer only just enough to retain the natural moisture of the salt.

Two protected origins in one blend

Here, two marks of origin meet: the IGP salt from Guérande and the AOP chili from the Basque Country – brought together in the workshop of L'Atelier du Sel in Saint-Molf.

Gilles Morel and his nephew Matthieu Le Chantoux founded it in 2014; the salt has carried the blue-and-yellow IGP seal since 2014. Good ingredients need no enhancers, explains Gilles – which is why the label lists only salt and chili, both organic. You will find the festive counterpart in the Fleur de Sel de Guérande IGP, and all the family's salts gathered at L'Atelier du Sel.

A tiny pinch in hot chocolate

The blend handles both: it becomes milder and rounder when cooked, and remains lively and piquant when sprinkled on at the end. A tiny pinch in hot chocolate is a classic in the Basque Country – and a small surprise for guests here. Stored in a dry place, the 150g supply will easily last through the entire barbecue season.

Organic inspection body FR-BIO-01 – EU/non-EU agriculture