There’s a great big world of hot sauces out there, from the straightforward and simple (like our Chili Pepper Sauce to the deceptively versatile (like our Sriracha Sauce). Some hot sauces blast you with heat upfront, thrilling your taste buds with immediate urgency. Others subtly sneak in heat, coupling their capsicum with complementary sensations and flavors. And others still, like Trader Joe’s Italian Bomba Hot Pepper Sauce, build heat, bite by bite, until you reach a crescendo of spice so invigorating, that it paradoxically keeps you coming back for more.

Made with Calabrian chili peppers sourced from a trusted pepper cultivator in Calabria, Italy (the “toe” of Italy’s “boot,” if you will), our Italian Bomba Hot Sauce is our tribute to a centuries-old culinary tradition. Since the 1500s, Calabrian hot chili peppers have been a staple of Southern Italian cuisine, especially when crushed, fermented, and mixed into a firey hot condiment, just like this Bomba Sauce. The natural fruity notes of the peppers are amplified by the slightly pickled flavor and texture they take on during fermentation, making it particularly suited for pasta dishes and pizzas. And, like a ticking time bomb (“Bomba” is Italian for bomb, after all), the more you eat, the more heat develops, until it (and whatever you put it on) is bursting with flavor.