View our spectacular collection of chilli recipes, including Paul Ainsworth's chicken chilli pasta, Alfred Prasad's peshwari kebab and Robert Thompson's chilli and chocolate tart.

Chilli is a spice without limits. It begins with variety, of which there are hundreds, from the humble jalapeno to the potent habanera, all with colours and heat levels as diverse as their species. Furthermore, chillis can be bought in a multitude of forms: fresh or dried, ground or in flakes, smoked or pickled.

Common in Asian recipes, you can find fresh chillis in Geoffrey Smeddle's seared mackerel recipe with chilli, spring onion and coriander, and in Marcello Tully's Thai fish cakes recipe. Or, looking towards the Mediterranean, we find the classic spicy tomato arrabiata sauce, served with Paul Ainsworth's Sicilian arancini.

Ground chilli powder is more about adding heat than flavour, which makes it hugely versatile. It's a mainstay in Indian recipes, for example, Alfred Prasad's lentil dahl recipe and Vineet Bhatia's spicy South Indian crab cakes. But you can also add chilli powder or chilli flakes to virtually any dish that would benefit from a kick: sprinkle it on pizzas, add it to sauces, use it in stir fries or add to a chocolate cake.