Food History of Naples

Key eras

1. Greek and Roman Naples

   Neapolitan cuisine has influences that date back to the Greco-Roman period. Plates from Magna Graecia show that fish and molluscs were prized, frescoes from Pompeii show baskets of figs and pomegranates, and Roman garum is the ancient sauce closest to the colatura di alici still made at Cetara.

2. Spanish rule and the tomato (16th to 18th centuries)

   In the 16th century Naples was known for its bread. Under Spanish rule, shortages of meat and vegetables pushed Neapolitans toward bread and pasta, and they became known as macaroni eaters. Tomatoes entered Neapolitan cooking in the 18th century, though Antonio Latini, chef to the Spanish viceroy, printed a tomato sauce 'alla spagnola' in 1692.

3. Pizzerias and court cooking (1700s to 1861)

   In 16th-century Naples some flatbreads were already called pizza and sold as street food to the poor. Documents found by the historian Antonio Mattozzi in the State Archive of Naples list 54 pizzerias in 1807. Aristocratic dishes such as timballo and sartù di riso sat beside popular dishes made from cheap ingredients, such as pasta e fagioli.

4. Unification and emigration (1861 to 1945)

   As Italy unified in the mid 19th century, Naples and the south became strongly identified with pasta. Pizzeria Brandi's site credits Raffaele Esposito with inventing the Margherita in 1889, and pizza reached the United States with Italian immigrants in the late 19th century. Attanasio dates from 1930 and Mimì alla Ferrovia from 1943.

   Taste it todayPizzeria Brandi

5. Recognition (1945 to present)

   Antica Pizzeria Di Matteo, founded in 1936, is now in its fourth generation. The Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana was founded in 1984, the EU registered pizza napoletana as a traditional speciality guaranteed on 5 February 2010, and UNESCO listed the art of the Neapolitan pizzaiuolo in 2017. Tandem opened in 2013 as the first restaurant dedicated to ragù.

   Taste it todayPizzeria di Matteo

Immigrant influences

Greek settlers (antiquity)

Plates from Magna Graecia show seafood was prized, and the Christmas sweet struffoli takes its name from the Greek stróngylos, 'round-shaped'.

Spanish rulers (16th to 18th centuries)

The Spanish brought the tomato from the Americas, and Latini's 1692 'alla spagnola' sauce is the first Italian tomato sauce recipe.

French cooks (17th to 19th centuries)

Neapolitan ragù evolved from the French ragoût, and the timballo in Vincenzo Corrado's 1773 Il cuoco galante derives from the French timbale.

Neapolitan emigrants (late 19th century)

Pizza first appeared in the United States with Italian immigrants in the late 19th century, and emigrants carried the ragù that became Italian-American gravy.

Signature innovations

• Pizza Margherita: Brandi credits Raffaele Esposito with inventing it in 1889 for Queen Margherita
  Taste it todayPizza Margherita Napoletana
• Sfogliatella: created at the Santa Rosa monastery, Conca dei Marini, in the 17th century
• Babà: a Polish yeast cake reworked in France as the rum baba and adopted in Naples
• Ragù napoletano: Antonio Latini's 1692 recipe is the first ragù recorded in Naples
• Pizza fritta: dough fried instead of baked, so street cooks needed no pizza oven
  Taste it todayPizza Fritta
• AVPN (1984): the association whose rules define authentic Neapolitan pizza