Togarashi

Japanese chili. Two main forms: ichimi (single dried red chili, pure heat) and shichimi (seven-spice blend: chili, sansho pepper, orange peel, sesame, nori, ginger, hemp seed). The shichimi version is the more versatile pantry addition — the sansho pepper adds a numbing citrus tingle that no Italian spice replicates.

Use like chili flakes in Italian cooking, but start at half the quantity — shichimi's compound spice character concentrates differently than simple peperoncino.