What to Eat in Naples
Naples (Napoli in Italian) is Italy's third-largest city and the capital of pizza. The world's first pizzeria opened right here, and the art of the Neapolitan pizzaiuolo has been on the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage since 2017. But Naples is also a city of fried food: this is where, on my very first visit, I fell for frittatina, a fried cake of pasta, and I've been looking out for it on every corner of southern Italy ever since.
What to Eat in Naples
- Pizza margherita. Legend has it that the pizzaiolo Raffaele Esposito baked it in 1889 for Queen Margherita of Savoy in the colors of the Italian flag - historians add that Naples had known the combination of tomato, mozzarella and basil a good forty years earlier. So Esposito probably didn't invent it, he just gave it a name; it was born in Naples all the same, and nowhere else does it taste quite like it.
- Pizza fritta. A sealed pocket of dough filled with ricotta that heads for hot oil instead of the oven. It came out of postwar Naples, where ovens and money were both in short supply - it was sold on credit on the terms "a ogge a otto": eat today, pay in eight days.
- Montanara. An open fried disc of dough that gets its tomato sauce, cheese and basil only once it comes out of the fryer. The wives of Neapolitan pizzaioli used to fry it in the ground-floor apartments known as bassi, and the film The Gold of Naples, starring Sophia Loren, made it famous.
- Frittatina di pasta. A ball of pasta bound with béchamel, breaded and fried until golden - a legacy of the maccheronari, the 19th-century Neapolitan street pasta vendors. I'll admit it: this one I'm hooked on.
- Cuoppo napoletano. A paper cone packed with fried treats - there's a version "from the sea" with little fish and calamari and a version "from the land" with croquettes and vegetables. Street vendors (friggitori) have worked the Neapolitan alleys since at least the 19th century.
- Sfogliatella. A shell-shaped pastry filled with ricotta - the crisp riccia made of puff pastry, or the softer frolla made of shortcrust. The recipe was born in a convent on the Amalfi Coast, but it took the Neapolitan pastry chef Pasquale Pintauro to turn it into a specialty in 1818.
- Babà al rum. A small yeasted cake drenched in rum syrup. A Polish king in French exile supposedly had a hand in the invention; the recipe reached Naples with the French-trained chefs known as "monzù", and the city claimed it as one of the emblems of its pastry making.
- Pastiera napoletana. An Easter tart of ricotta, cooked wheat and orange blossom water. Historians trace it to the convent of San Gregorio Armeno at the end of the 16th century; legend says the siren Parthenope gave it to the city as a gift.
- Zeppole di San Giuseppe. Fried choux pastry with cream, inseparable from the feast of Saint Joseph on March 19.
- Struffoli. Fried balls of dough rolled in honey, the centerpiece of the Neapolitan Christmas table. The name most likely comes from Greek, and a recipe from 1634 survives in Naples.
- Ragù napoletano. "'O rraù" in Neapolitan: a meat sauce left to simmer all night if need be, traditionally started on Saturday evening so that it lands on the pasta at noon on Sunday.
- Vermicelli alle vongole. Pasta with vongole clams, garlic and olive oil - the one first course that never changes at Christmas Eve dinner in Neapolitan families. The only argument is whether to leave it "white" or throw in a few tomatoes.
- Caffè napoletano and caffè sospeso. Naples has turned coffee into both a ritual and an act of charity: the tradition of the "suspended" prepaid coffee means paying for two and leaving one hanging for whoever can't afford it right now. In Neapolitan homes, coffee used to be made in a flip-over pot called a cuccumella.
- Friarielli. A bitter leafy green that goes by that name only in Naples and the area around it - elsewhere in Italy similar shoots are called cime di rapa. The classic pairing is salsiccia e friarielli: Italian sausage with friarielli.
- Taralli 'nzogna e pepe. Crumbly rings with lard, black pepper and almonds that Neapolitan bakers down by the port started making from leftover leavened dough. They share nothing but the name with Apulian taralli - the Neapolitan ones are richer and far peppier.
- … and possibly dozens more Italian dishes on the list: What to Eat in Italy.
Where to Eat in Naples
- Antica Pizzeria Di Matteo. The pizzeria has been running since 1936 on Via dei Tribunali, the pizza artery of the historic center. Their frittatina is famously creamy - Di Matteo is where I fell for it, and it's the bar I hold every other one up against (for how it compared with a Sorrento bistro, read the article on Genny street food). Bill Clinton stopped by in July 1994 and ate a folded pizza out on the street; the fried pieces are sold from a window opening straight onto the sidewalk, perfect for eating on the go as you explore the alleys around.
- L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele. Probably the most famous pizzeria in the world - the Condurro family has been making pizza here since 1870, and the menu keeps to just two items: margherita and marinara. Julia Roberts had a margherita here in the film Eat Pray Love; I had food of Michelin quality here at street-food prices. Reservations don't exist - you give your name at the door, take a numbered ticket and wait. Often you wait a long time.
Naples can't be eaten in a single day - and honestly not in a single lifetime either. See Naples and die? I'd sooner keep going back to eat.
Enjoy eating your way around Naples!
Montanara: Fried Neapolitan Pizza
A fried pizza from Naples that supposedly owes its name to a mountain man's lunch: instead of being baked, montanara goes into hot oil and gets dressed only once it comes out. In the film The Gold of Naples it was even sold on credit. In Matera they now serve it in gourmet versions - from mortadella with pistachios to an anchovy on yellow tomato pesto.