The plates that define Naples: what they are, and where to eat the canonical version.
The plates that define Naples: what they are, where they came from, and where to eat the canonical version.
Pizza margherita is tomato, mozzarella and basil; AVPN rules call for hand-shaped dough baked 60 to 90 seconds in a 485 degree wood-fired oven.
Where to try it: L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele, Pizzeria Brandi, Pizzeria di Matteo, Ristorante Umberto
Price: €10.50 at Ristorante Umberto (June 2026 menu)
Pizzeria Brandi's own site credits the chef Raffaele Esposito with inventing the Margherita in 1889 for Queen Margherita of Savoy, with tomato, mozzarella and basil recalling the Italian flag; a quoted account in Wikipedia's history of pizza dates the Margherita earlier, to 1796 to 1810. The Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana was founded in 1984 and writes the rules for authentic Neapolitan pizza. 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.
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy
Pizza fritta began in Naples: pizza dough fried instead of baked, folded over fillings such as tomato and mozzarella, a street food that needs no pizza oven.
Where to try it: Pizzeria di Matteo, Gino Sorbillo
Wikipedia says pizza fritta originated in Naples and that frying lets a cook make pizza without an oven, for example from a street cart. Italia.it, the Italian national tourism portal, describes it as dough filled with tomato and mozzarella and always cooked in hot oil. The Sorbillo group lists the fried pizza among the icons of its menu, and Antica Pizzeria Di Matteo's menu on its own site offers a traditional pizza fritta with provola, ricotta and tomato plus a choice of cicoli, ham or salami.
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy, Pork
Sfogliatella riccia is the curly, shell-shaped Neapolitan pastry; sfogliatella frolla is the shortcrust version, and both are usually bought at a pasticceria.
Where to try it: Pasticceria Attanasio, Scaturchio, Pasticceria Leopoldo
Wikipedia says the sfogliatella Santa Rosa, from which the current pastry was born, was created in the monastery of Santa Rosa at Conca dei Marini in the 17th century, and that Pasquale Pintauro, a pastry chef from Naples, began selling the pastries in his shop in 1818. Dissapore dates Attanasio, behind Napoli Centrale, to 1930 and says it still makes the pastry cones by hand. Scaturchio runs a workshop where visitors make a sfogliatella frolla.
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy, Eggs
Viator · 3 h
Learn to make two of Italy’s most iconic dishes in Naples: authentic Neapolitan pizza and creamy tiramisù. Guided by a local chef, you’ll create pizza dough from scrat...
Viator · 3 h
You will take a trip back in time to when Kings and Queens dined on the delicacies locals still love today. Hear the legends and lore of the Spanish Quarter and other ...
Viator · 2.5 h
Dive into the heart of Naples with a hands-on culinary journey. This is your chance to master two pillars of Italian tradition: the world-famous Pizza and the creamy T...
Neapolitan ragù is meat braised for hours in tomato purée and sauce; the sauce dresses the pasta first and the meat is eaten afterwards as a second course.
Where to try it: Tandem Ragu
Wikipedia says Neapolitan ragù evolved from the French ragoût, which reached Naples within about thirty years of 1662, and that Antonio Latini's 1692 recipe was the first ragù to appear in Naples, though it looked nothing like the modern sauce. Tandem, which opened in July 2013 on Via Paladino, calls itself the first restaurant entirely dedicated to Neapolitan ragù and the Sunday genovese.
Watch out for: Gluten
Spaghetti alle vongole is spaghetti cooked with fresh clams, garlic and parsley, in bianco or in rosso with tomato; tomato is more common in the south.
Where to try it: Ristorante Umberto, Mimi alla Ferrovia
Wikipedia describes spaghetti alle vongole as a dish of the coastal regions of Italy, particularly the south, usually made with palourde clams (vongole veraci). Its article on Neapolitan cuisine says Christmas Eve dinner in Naples typically begins with spaghetti alle vongole, followed by fried eel and fried salt cod. Ristorante Umberto and Mimì alla Ferrovia both list spaghetti with vongole veraci on their own pages.
Watch out for: Gluten, Molluscs
Babà is a small yeast cake soaked in rum syrup, sometimes filled with whipped or pastry cream; the baba is popular in Naples as a local specialty.
Where to try it: Scaturchio, Pasticceria Leopoldo, Pasticceria Attanasio
Wikipedia traces the baba to a Polish yeast cake brought into France in the 18th century and attributed to the exiled King Stanislaus I, with the modern rum baba invented in Paris in 1835 or earlier. It became a popular Neapolitan specialty under the name babà. Scaturchio says a Vesuvius-shaped babà made in a copper mould has been in its windows since 1994.
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy, Eggs
Pastiera napoletana is a Neapolitan tart made with cooked wheat, eggs and ricotta and flavoured with orange flower water, usually eaten at Easter.
Where to try it: Scaturchio, Pasticceria Leopoldo, Pasticceria Attanasio
Wikipedia says the modern pastiera was probably invented in a Neapolitan convent, and gives legends tying it to the siren Parthenope and to a spring feast of the goddess Ceres. Its article on Neapolitan cuisine adds that the wheat may once have symbolised pagan fertility rites around the spring equinox. Scaturchio lists the pastiera in its Easter selection, including a pocket version.
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy, Eggs
Neapolitan taralli are ring-shaped crackers made with lard (sugna) and black pepper, often with almonds, eaten as a snack at any hour of the day.
Where to try it: Pasticceria Poppella
Italia.it dates Neapolitan taralli to the late 1700s, when bakers began reusing leftover dough with lard, pepper and almonds. Wikipedia, citing the food writer Arthur Schwartz, says Mergellina had a strong taralli-eating culture before World War II and that shops from Mergellina to Via Caracciolo still sell taralli 'nzogna e pepe. Pasticceria Poppella's history says it added taralli 'nzogna e pepe to its bread baking in 1960.
Watch out for: Gluten, Pork
A cuoppo is a paper cone of fried food; the seafood version holds anchovies, squid rings and shrimp, fried to order at a Neapolitan friggitoria.
Where to try it: Friggitoria Vomero, Mercato della Pignasecca
Gambero Rosso International calls the cuoppo the ancient art of Neapolitan street food: a mixed fry packet filled to order, once the cheap food of the people, when traders and customers had an unspoken agreement that payment could wait up to eight days. The same article names Friggitoria Vomero, open since the 1930s, and the fish cuoppo of the Pescheria Azzurra stall in Mercato della Pignasecca.
Watch out for: Gluten, Fish, Crustaceans, Molluscs
Mozzarella di bufala campana is a fresh pasta filata cheese made from Italian Mediterranean buffalo milk, protected by an EU designation of origin since 1996.
Wikipedia says references to cheese made from water buffalo milk first appear at the beginning of the 12th century, that buffalo mozzarella spread across southern Italy from the second half of the 18th century, and that it is traditionally produced in Campania, particularly in the provinces of Caserta and Salerno. Tenuta Vannulo, an organic farm in Capaccio Paestum, runs a dairy, a tasting room and a yogurt and gelato bar, open daily.
Watch out for: Dairy
Parmigiana di melanzane is fried sliced aubergine layered with mozzarella and tomato sauce and baked; in Naples it is served tepid, often as a side.
Where to try it: Ristorante Umberto
Price: €7.50 as a side dish at Ristorante Umberto (June 2026 menu)
Campania, Calabria, Apulia and Sicily all claim the dish. Wikipedia says its ancestor appears in Vincenzo Corrado's 1786 Il cuoco galante and that the version with Parmesan and tomato ragù appears in Ippolito Cavalcanti's 1837 Naples cookbook, which suggests it evolved in Naples. Ristorante Umberto lists a Neapolitan aubergine parmigiana baked with fiordilatte di Agerola and meat ragù among its side dishes.
Watch out for: Dairy
Genovese is a Neapolitan sauce of slow-cooked onions and meat, typically served with ziti, rigatoni or paccheri and sprinkled with grated cheese.
Where to try it: Tandem Ragu, Ristorante Umberto, Mimi alla Ferrovia
Price: €16 at Ristorante Umberto (June 2026 menu)
Despite its name, Wikipedia says genovese is a principal pasta sauce of Naples, introduced in the 15th or 16th century, perhaps by Genoese merchants or their cooks; the food writer Arthur Schwartz called it unknown in Genoa. It is cooked for two to ten hours and emphasises onions, sometimes the ramata di Montoro. Tandem serves the Sunday genovese, Ristorante Umberto lists ziti spezzati alla genovese with Montoro onions and beef, and Mimì alla Ferrovia lists candele alla genovese.
Watch out for: Gluten, Sulphites
Spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino is spaghetti tossed with garlic softened in olive oil and chili, a Naples dish made from cheap pantry ingredients.
Wikipedia calls spaghetti aglio e olio a pasta dish typical of the city of Naples, popular because it is simple to make from inexpensive ingredients that keep well in a pantry. It was once also known as vermicelli alla Borbonica, and most traditional recipes include no cheese. The garlic is sautéed in extra virgin olive oil, sometimes with red pepper flakes, then tossed with spaghetti cooked in salted water.
Watch out for: Gluten
Friarielli, the Neapolitan name for rapini, are pan-fried with oil, garlic and chili and served beside fried sausage; the pairing also tops pizza.
Where to try it: Pizzeria Brandi, Pizzeria di Matteo
Wikipedia says the green is called friarielli in Naples and that in Campania it is so closely associated with sausages that Arthur Schwartz reports it is almost unthinkable to eat them without a side of rapini. The Caserta Chamber of Commerce says friarielli are grown mainly in autumn and winter, with the harvest concentrated from late autumn to early spring. Pizzeria Brandi lists a Salsiccia e Friarielli pizza, and Antica Pizzeria Di Matteo's menu has sausage and friarielli on a fried pizza.
Naples's signature dishes include Pizza Margherita Napoletana, Pizza Fritta, Sfogliatella Riccia, Ragu Napoletano, Spaghetti alle Vongole. See our signature dishes chapter for where to eat each.
