Pippali
Long pepper: a fruiting catkin hotter and sweeter than black pepper, the pepper of the ancient world.
Also: long pepper, pipli, tippili, Piper longum
Pippali is the dried spike-shaped fruit cluster of Piper longum, a relative of black pepper native to eastern India. Each finger-long catkin is made of tiny seeds packed along a stalk and tastes hotter, sweeter and more resinous than black pepper, with a slow numbing finish. Before chillies arrived from the Americas, long pepper was the main hot spice of India and was traded to Greece and Rome. It survives in Ayurvedic tradition, in Indonesian and Nepali cooking, in the Moroccan blend ras el hanout, and in pickling spice. Grate it on a fine rasp or crush in a mortar. Roots and stems are used separately as pippalimool.