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.
The canonical Neapolitan pizza: a thin charred disc with a raised cornicione, dressed with San Marzano tomato, fior di latte mozzarella and basil, baked in a wood-fired oven at 485 degrees Celsius.
Where: L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele, Gino e Toto Sorbillo, 50 Kalo di Ciro Salvo, Pizzeria Brandi, Concettina ai Tre Santi
Price: 5 to 12 euros
Pizza fritta is a deep-fried pocket of risen dough stuffed with ricotta, cicoli (pressed pork scratchings), provola and black pepper, fried in hot lard or oil until blistered and golden, served folded in paper.
Where: Pizzeria di Matteo, Sorbillo Lievito Madre, Pizzeria Starita a Materdei
Price: 2 to 4 euros
Sfogliatella riccia is a shell-shaped pastry of thin lard-brushed dough coiled around semolina, ricotta, candied citrus and cinnamon, baked until shattering-crisp on the outside and custardy within.
Where: Pasticceria Attanasio, Scaturchio, Sfogliatella Mary, Gran Caffe Gambrinus
Price: 1.50 to 3 euros
Naples' long-cooked Sunday meat sauce: pork ribs, beef rolls and sausage braised four to eight hours in tomato until the fat rises and the sauce turns brick-red, served over paccheri or ziti spezzati.
Where: Tandem Ragu, Mimi alla Ferrovia, Trattoria Nennella, Osteria Donna Teresa
Price: 6 to 14 euros
Naples' in bianco vongole: spaghetti finished in vongole veraci clam juices and white wine with garlic, chilli, parsley and olive oil, the sauce light, briny and free of tomato.
Where: La Cantinella, Mimi alla Ferrovia, Ristorante Caruso
Price: 12 to 20 euros
The Neapolitan baba is a tall, mushroom-shaped yeast cake soaked in dark rum syrup until sodden and trembling, served cool with whipped cream or pastry cream alongside, the rum-to-cake ratio a point of civic pride.
Where: Scaturchio, Gran Caffe Gambrinus, Pasticceria Moccia
Price: 2 to 5 euros
Pastiera napoletana: a short-crust tart filled with cooked grain, ricotta, eggs, candied citrus, cinnamon and orange-flower water under a lattice top, traditionally made on Holy Thursday for Easter.
Where: Scaturchio, Gran Caffe Gambrinus, Pasticceria Moccia
Price: 3 to 5 euros per slice
Neapolitan taralli are savory ring-shaped crackers made with lard (sugna) and black pepper, boiled then baked until pale golden and snapping-crisp, sold warm in paper twists from street-side counters.
Where: Leopoldo Taralli Counter
Price: 1 to 2 euros per bag
A cuoppo di mare is a paper cone of mixed fried seafood -- squid rings, anchovies, small shrimp, tentacles -- battered lightly and fried to order in very hot oil, eaten standing from the paper without utensils.
Where: Pignasecca Friggitorie, Passione Napoletana
Price: 4 to 8 euros
Buffalo mozzarella from the Campania plains is a hand-pulled fresh cheese made from whole buffalo milk, with a thin white skin, milky interior and pleasantly sour finish; best eaten within 24 hours at room temperature.
Where: Mercato della Pignasecca, Mercato del Pesce di Porta Nolana
Price: 4 to 8 euros per 125g ball
Neapolitan eggplant parmigiana: thin slices of fried eggplant layered with San Marzano tomato sauce, fresh fior di latte mozzarella, grated parmigiano reggiano and basil, baked until bubbling golden.
Where: Trattoria Nennella, Da Ettore, Ristorante Umberto, Tandem Ragu
Price: €10-18
Naples' signature meat-and-onion ragu: beef chuck simmered for 4 to 6 hours with an enormous quantity of golden onions until they reduce to a melting brown jam, served over ziti or paccheri pasta.
Where: Tandem Ragu, Ristorante Umberto, Trattoria Nennella, Da Ettore
Price: €14-22
Four ingredients: spaghetti, garlic, extra-virgin olive oil, dried red chilli. Tossed in a hot pan with pasta water to emulsify into a glossy slick. Neapolitan midnight pasta.
Where: Trattoria Nennella, Ristorante Umberto, Tandem Ragu, Da Ettore, La Locanda Gesu Vecchio, Osteria della Mattonella
Price: €8 to €14
Neapolitan turnip tops sautéed in olive oil with garlic and chilli, paired with a coil of pork sausage. The Campania pairing of bitter greens and rich meat, eaten with a hunk of bread or stuffed into a Neapolitan pizza.
Where: Trattoria Nennella, Da Ettore, Ristorante Umberto, La Locanda Gesu Vecchio, Tandem Ragu, Osteria della Mattonella
Price: €12 to €18
The canonical Neapolitan pizza: a thin charred disc with a raised cornicione, dressed with San Marzano tomato, fior di latte mozzarella and basil, baked in a wood-fired oven at 485 degrees Celsius.
History: Pizza margherita was formalised in Naples in 1889 when pizzaiolo Raffaele Esposito of Pizzeria Brandi served Queen Margherita of Savoy a pizza in the colours of the Italian flag. The Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN) codified its production rules in 1984 and the craft was inscribed on the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list in 2017.
Where to try it: L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele, Gino e Toto Sorbillo, 50 Kalo di Ciro Salvo, Pizzeria Brandi, Concettina ai Tre Santi
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy
Pizza fritta is a deep-fried pocket of risen dough stuffed with ricotta, cicoli (pressed pork scratchings), provola and black pepper, fried in hot lard or oil until blistered and golden, served folded in paper.
History: Pizza fritta became the street food of post-war Naples when wood-fired ovens were scarce and lard was cheap; vendors fried pizzas on portable stoves in the Quartieri Spagnoli and the Sanita. Sofia Loren famously sold pizza fritta in the 1954 film L'Oro di Napoli, shot on location in the city. The pavement-fried format survives today in counters such as Pizzeria di Matteo and Sorbillo Lievito Madre, often eaten standing up in folded paper.
Where to try it: Pizzeria di Matteo, Sorbillo Lievito Madre, Pizzeria Starita a Materdei
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy, Pork
Sfogliatella riccia is a shell-shaped pastry of thin lard-brushed dough coiled around semolina, ricotta, candied citrus and cinnamon, baked until shattering-crisp on the outside and custardy within.
History: Sfogliatella was created by the nuns of the Santa Rosa convent in Conca dei Marini on the Amalfi Coast around 1700; the recipe reached Naples in the 1800s when pastry cook Pasquale Pintauro adapted it for his Via Toledo shop, and the Neapolitan version became the city's definitive pastry. Today the canonical addresses for the riccia are Pasticceria Attanasio near the central station and Scaturchio in Piazza San Domenico Maggiore.
Where to try it: Pasticceria Attanasio, Scaturchio, Sfogliatella Mary, Gran Caffe Gambrinus
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy, Eggs
Naples' long-cooked Sunday meat sauce: pork ribs, beef rolls and sausage braised four to eight hours in tomato until the fat rises and the sauce turns brick-red, served over paccheri or ziti spezzati.
History: Ragu napoletano traces to the Spanish viceregal period of Naples (1503 to 1707), when slow-cooking tough cuts in tomato became embedded in the city's cucina povera. It remains the Sunday centrepiece of Neapolitan family cooking, started Saturday evening to be ready by midday Mass on Sunday. The canonical restaurant versions today are at Tandem Ragu and Trattoria Nennella in the Quartieri Spagnoli.
Where to try it: Tandem Ragu, Mimi alla Ferrovia, Trattoria Nennella, Osteria Donna Teresa
Watch out for: Gluten
Naples' in bianco vongole: spaghetti finished in vongole veraci clam juices and white wine with garlic, chilli, parsley and olive oil, the sauce light, briny and free of tomato.
History: Clams have been harvested in the Gulf of Naples and the Pozzuoli coast since the Roman era; the pairing with pasta became codified in Neapolitan cucina di mare in the 19th century. Naples insists on the in bianco version without tomato; Rome's version with tomato is a separate preparation. The canonical Naples rooms for the dish today are La Cantinella on the Lungomare and Mimi alla Ferrovia near the central station.
Where to try it: La Cantinella, Mimi alla Ferrovia, Ristorante Caruso
Watch out for: Gluten, Molluscs
The Neapolitan baba is a tall, mushroom-shaped yeast cake soaked in dark rum syrup until sodden and trembling, served cool with whipped cream or pastry cream alongside, the rum-to-cake ratio a point of civic pride.
History: The baba reached Naples in the 18th century via the French court (itself imported from Poland by King Stanislaw Leszczynski); Neapolitan pastry makers adopted it and over two centuries made it their own, increasing the rum soaking and shrinking the size until today's individual baba napoletano bears little resemblance to the original.
Where to try it: Scaturchio, Gran Caffe Gambrinus, Pasticceria Moccia
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy, Eggs
Pastiera napoletana: a short-crust tart filled with cooked grain, ricotta, eggs, candied citrus, cinnamon and orange-flower water under a lattice top, traditionally made on Holy Thursday for Easter.
History: Pastiera's origins are traced to pagan spring fertility rites on the Gulf of Naples, though the recipe as we know it emerged in the convents of the Annunziata and San Gregorio Armeno in 17th-century Naples. The tart is so anchored to Easter that Neapolitans say it is the dish that makes the queen cry (from happiness, not sorrow).
Where to try it: Scaturchio, Gran Caffe Gambrinus, Pasticceria Moccia
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy, Eggs
Neapolitan taralli are savory ring-shaped crackers made with lard (sugna) and black pepper, boiled then baked until pale golden and snapping-crisp, sold warm in paper twists from street-side counters.
History: Taralli napoletani have been made in Naples since at least the 16th century, originally a poor man's biscuit baked in the residual heat of cooling wood ovens. The sugna (lard) and pepe nero version distinguishes the Neapolitan tarallo from the Pugliese variety made with olive oil; both the Leopoldo and Mergellina waterfront counters have kept the craft continuously.
Where to try it: Leopoldo Taralli Counter
Watch out for: Gluten, Pork
A cuoppo di mare is a paper cone of mixed fried seafood -- squid rings, anchovies, small shrimp, tentacles -- battered lightly and fried to order in very hot oil, eaten standing from the paper without utensils.
History: The cuoppo (paper cone) is the defining vessel of Neapolitan street food, used for anything sold hot from a friggitoria counter. The mare version uses the catch landed daily at Porta Nolana fish market; the terra version uses potato croquettes and frittatine. The friggitorie of the Pignasecca and the Spanish Quarter have sold cuoppi since at least the 1800s.
Where to try it: Pignasecca Friggitorie, Passione Napoletana
Watch out for: Gluten, Fish, Crustaceans, Molluscs
Buffalo mozzarella from the Campania plains is a hand-pulled fresh cheese made from whole buffalo milk, with a thin white skin, milky interior and pleasantly sour finish; best eaten within 24 hours at room temperature.
History: Buffalo mozzarella in Campania is documented from the 12th century, when Cistercian monks near Capua raised water buffalo; the cheese received DOP status in 1996. The heartland is the plains between Caserta, Salerno and Paestum, and the direct-sale farms in Paestum (Tenuta Vannulo, Barlotti) allow visitors to buy and eat the cheese within an hour of it leaving the vat.
Where to try it: Mercato della Pignasecca, Mercato del Pesce di Porta Nolana
Watch out for: Dairy
Neapolitan eggplant parmigiana: thin slices of fried eggplant layered with San Marzano tomato sauce, fresh fior di latte mozzarella, grated parmigiano reggiano and basil, baked until bubbling golden.
History: Parmigiana di melanzane has been a Naples dish since at least the 18th century, with documented Neapolitan cookbook recipes from 1773. The name likely derives from the Sicilian-Arabic parmiciana (overlapping wooden slats, referring to the layered construction). The dish is one of Italy's strongest regional disputes between Naples (which uses fior di latte mozzarella, San Marzano tomatoes and never breads the eggplant) and Sicily (which often uses provola and may bread the eggplant). The Neapolitan version is canonical for the Bay of Naples; Trattoria Nennella and Tandem Ragu run benchmark versions.
Where to try it: Trattoria Nennella, Da Ettore, Ristorante Umberto, Tandem Ragu
Watch out for: Dairy
Naples' signature meat-and-onion ragu: beef chuck simmered for 4 to 6 hours with an enormous quantity of golden onions until they reduce to a melting brown jam, served over ziti or paccheri pasta.
History: Genovese ragu is one of Naples' two great pasta ragus alongside the more famous tomato-and-beef ragu napoletano. Despite the name, the dish is wholly Neapolitan; the most credible theory is that 15th-century Genoese merchants in Naples ran taverns serving a related onion-stew dish that local cooks adopted. The structural distinction is the volume of onions: at least 2 to 3 times the weight of the meat, cooked low and slow for 4 to 6 hours until they break down into a thick brown puree. The dish is served exclusively with long tube pasta (ziti or paccheri).
Where to try it: Tandem Ragu, Ristorante Umberto, Trattoria Nennella, Da Ettore
Watch out for: Gluten, Sulphites
Four ingredients: spaghetti, garlic, extra-virgin olive oil, dried red chilli. Tossed in a hot pan with pasta water to emulsify into a glossy slick. Neapolitan midnight pasta.
History: Spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino is a Neapolitan invention from the 19th century, born of cucina povera (poor cooking) using only Campania pantry staples: durum-wheat pasta, Neapolitan garlic (Allium neapolitanum), Campania extra-virgin olive oil, and the chilli that Neapolitan folk-belief considers a charm against bad luck. It became Italy's most-cooked midnight pasta, the spaghetti di mezzanotte you make after the wine has run out. Traditional Neapolitan preparation NEVER adds cheese; the dish is too pure to need it.
Where to try it: Trattoria Nennella, Ristorante Umberto, Tandem Ragu, Da Ettore, La Locanda Gesu Vecchio, Osteria della Mattonella
Watch out for: Gluten
Neapolitan turnip tops sautéed in olive oil with garlic and chilli, paired with a coil of pork sausage. The Campania pairing of bitter greens and rich meat, eaten with a hunk of bread or stuffed into a Neapolitan pizza.
History: Friarielli are the immature flowering tops of broccoli rabe (cima di rapa), grown on the volcanic hillsides around Vesuvius. Neapolitan street vendors have sold the dish since at least the 17th century; the canonical pairing with pork sausage emerged in working-class Neapolitan kitchens of the 19th century. The combination appears on every pizza menu as Pizza Friarielli e Salsiccia, and as a standalone secondo at trattorias throughout Naples. Outside Campania, the greens are nearly unobtainable; the Naples version is the canon.
Where to try it: Trattoria Nennella, Da Ettore, Ristorante Umberto, La Locanda Gesu Vecchio, Tandem Ragu, Osteria della Mattonella
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.