If you have already been, or have heard the stories of friends, surely you understand that Naples is a city far from trivial. At every street corner there is a story to tell, a slice of life that is worth remembering once returned home. The eccentricity is the feature that makes Naples a place where the color is at home. A predominant attribute that can not fail to strike the tourist, who may decide to love it or despise it. In the latter case, the feeling can never be total because who knows the capital of Campania is well aware that the Neapolitan cuisine is able to abduct any palate, even the most wary. In the kitchen, as well as with everything in Naples, every dish has a story, a journey through ancient times or recent inventions. In fact, the Neapolitan cuisine is a topic that deserves a true anthology, so below we will limit ourselves only to point out the dishes not to be missed during your stage in Naples without pretending to be exhaustive.

– First dishes
– Main courses
– Side dishes
– Desserts
– Drinks

First dishes

Pizza

Trust me, even if you’ve eaten a thousand times for all local notable in Naples will be different. The pizza in Naples is an experience. It must be absolutely tasted on site, pizzerias strictly in a wood oven (the only one to reach a temperature between 450 ° C and 485) scattered in every corner of the city. If you are taken by the many things to see in Naples, fear not. As we said the inspiration here is the master and the Neapolitans have proceeded to invent the pizza “wraparound”, a tasty street food: it is a pizza smaller than you eat sitting at the table, folded into four .

Omelette pasta or pizza of macaroni

It is one of those foods that define calorie is little. When she was born, the pizza of macaroni was considered a poor man’s dish, because it is mainly made up of leftovers: the ingredients that make up are the paste, which can be either long or short, eggs, cheese, mozzarella and provolone salami. It can be cooked either fried to baked. The pizza of macaroni, usually, the Neapolitans love to eat it during the outings: by its compactness turns out to be comfortable and very nutritious at the same time.

Pasta and potatoes

A classic of the Neapolitan cuisine, is a dish of humble and poor origins, which formerly has fed generations. A recipe asserted in the kingdom of Naples probably around eighteenth century and spread quickly even in the remotest parts of the periphery. Before this date, in fact, the potato was not yet widespread in European kitchens with arrogance, not to mention the fact that the tomato, another fundamental ingredient of this dish, was considered until the century before a toxic food, for so snubbed by housewives from all walks. But once you understand the immense nutritional value of these two amazing products, the popular classes and the poorest strata adopted them in full as key ingredients in your recipe book, a tradition that continues today. Pasta and potatoes evokes ancestral memories only to smell it, and then reach the apotheosis of pleasure with the first taste, when the taste buds are already celebrating even before diving under meal. The diffusion and the propensity to revisit this dish, produced with time dozens of variations, all different, and all claiming the title of originality and tradition.

Pasta and beans

In Naples, in addition brilliant idea of combining the beans the goodness of the mussels, there is another way to make this special dish, a way that naturally relies on simple recipes of the kitchens of our grandmothers, but that still does lick Hair: pasta and beans with pork rind. It should be remembered that in Naples, unlike many other Italian cities, pasta and beans, as well as with other legumes, is not heated apart, but cooked directly in the pan of beans themselves. For this recipe makes it difficult to find a precise historical moment where to place it, but one thing is certain, the pasta and beans with pork rind is part of law among the poor and simple dishes, but rich in goodness, typical of our beloved Neapolitan cuisine . In ancient times, eating meals with natural condiments such as animal fat that was out of the cooking of pork rind was not a problem, life was less sedentary and no one had the time to feel guilty if at lunch ate more seasoned than expected. Add the pork rind in the beans was a pleasant custom which today can be described as a whim or a plan to grant time to time. The fact remains that eating pasta and beans here, in the Neapolitan, today, is a must.

Scialatielli with seafood

Starting from the use of scialatielli if possible Gragnano, it soon becomes clear that this is a dish made in Campania. This dish was born for the chef Henry Cosentino hand in 1978, which won the occasion entremetier Year award. There are several theories about the etymology of the name: one says that their name comes from the union of two words Neapolitan dialect: scialare, which means enjoy and tiella, which indicates a pan; the other claims that the dialect word “scialatielli” comes from “sciglià” in Neapolitan dialect verb that has the meaning of “mess” In the Italian language the mess verb, referring to the hair, it means “to ruffle, mess, mess up” .And, indeed, scialatielli, willing steaming on the plate, they appear as a disorganized mass of dough. This format of particular pasta is shortest of the most used spaghetti, but it is certainly wider because it has a rectangular and irregular section. Tradition dictates that they are handmade. Scialatielli go to a wedding with the fish dishes or seafood and are the highlight of the Amalfi cuisine.

Main courses

Frying

Naples is the kingdom of fried, much of the Neapolitan cuisine, in fact, uses this tasty cooking method. Frying is so popular in town so that at the beginning of the last century in Naples was born on the first fast food: “Vac ” and press”. Unlike those we know today, the fast food Neapolitan in question is a fryer. Specific cases aside from the menu of every self-respecting Neapolitan fry are potato croquettes, sciurilli (zucchini flowers stuffed with ricotta and salami, passed in crumbs and fried bread), rice balls (close relatives of the Sicilian arancini); the cicenielle pancakes (small blue fish and white, mixed in batter) the grown pasta (pasta with flour, water and yeast fried in hot oil) and the mozzarella in a carriage, ie two slices of bread softened in milk, pass the egg and fried with a slice of mozzarella in the middle. Neapolitan fried, you will recognize, it is a real paradise for the palate. And a purgatory for the line.

Octopus Luciana

The beauty of Naples and the Neapolitans is knowing how to create simple things something unusual and exceptional inexplicably. In the case of cooking a stop in Naples will also rely from tasting the “octopus alla Luciana”, so named because its easy recipe, which includes tomato, pepper, garlic, olive oil, olives and capers, as well as octopus, was designed in village of Saint Lucia.

Escarole pizza

It ‘a rustic made of flour and water that includes escarole sauteed with garlic, olive oil, black olives, pine nuts, raisins and (according to taste) anchovies. Besides being a very tasty dish it is one of the guest stars of the Christmas Eve table.

Sausage and broccoli

A plate MUST Neapolitan cuisine. It ‘made of vegetables and meat, unique and inimitable. There is a Neapolitan-respecting you do not love them, and prepare them for that purpose. The friggiarelli, which grow in areas of Naples, are difficult to find in other areas of Campania and Italy, in fact, they are replaced with turnip greens, but the recipe is so upset. In ancient times the hills of Posillipo and especially of Vomero were full of gardens and cultivated terraces. Vomero, where grew the broccoli, it was called ‘or’ coll de friarielle “. Today the areas where they are grown are mostly internal ones of Campania. There are different interpretations regarding the name: some argue that it comes from the Castilian “frio-grelos” which means winter broccoli and others from the Neapolitan verb “frijere” frying. The origins of this dish are very old. In the period of greatest poverty, women Neapolitan, nicknamed “zandraglie”, he went to the kitchens of the nobles, where “Monsù” or the cooks across the Alps, lavished food scraps, as the entrails of poultry and animals. It was a way to deal with hunger but it was not always possible to find something. With their ingenuity, the Neapolitans began to realize that to make sure the daily food should “focus” of the humble and poor foods such as turnip greens. They began to gather the floral clusters are not yet open turnips and cook, adding the lard, “a nzogn”, to give it flavor and make them highly caloric. Today lard has been replaced with the extra virgin olive oil. They were always accompanied by sausages, pork strictly. ” ‘A sasicc’ is’ a mort d ” or rapini,” says a Neapolitan said.

Side dishes

Eggplant parmigiana

According to some abductions etymological, on which, however, do not put my finger on it, is so called because the inhabitants of Parma, once, were known to cook in layers, as well as with this dish of the typical Neapolitan cuisine. The aubergines are made into slices and fried, before frying can be passed in the egg or not, it depends on taste. Each layer, eggplant aside, consists of mozzarella, tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil. The entire mixture is then passed into the oven to give compact and melt the mozzarella. We hope, as if it were needed, that despite the uncertainties about the origin of the term will agree on the undoubted specialty taste of this dish.

Tortano or casatiello

They are rustic made of bread dough, enriched with tasty ingredients such as pasta various cheeses, lard, pork scratching pork, sausages. The difference between the two is not only in terminology: the tortano does not include boiled eggs inside; at the same time it has their own eggs to make the casatiello a typical Easter delicacy.

Gattò (from the French gateau) potato

And ‘yet another bomb of calories and taste proposed by the Neapolitan cuisine is a compound made of boiled and mashed potatoes, milk, with the addition of salami, mozzarella, pepper, salt and parmesan cheese: the whole is held together by the eggs. After mixed well, to complete the gateau is coated with breadcrumbs and baked in the oven.

Desserts

Sfogliatella

The magnitude of this typical Neapolitan sweet in town has long been considered a cult. The puff was born in the cloistered convent of Santa Rosa, on the Amalfi Coast, between Furore and Conca dei Marini. A 400 years ago day, the nun who took care of the kitchen, not to throw the cooked semolina in milk advanced, we added a bit of dried fruit, sugar and lemon liqueur. “It could be a filling,” he said. Then he made two sheets of pasta, of which at the upper gave her a form ‘to monaco cap’ and I settled the filling. The Mother Superior, having immediately sensed the business, he decided to put the desserts on the classic wheel to sell them to the villagers who in return will leave a few coins. The cake took its name from the Holy Monastery and was spread throughout the territory. The Santarosa, arrived in Naples in just the first of ‘800, thanks to the pastry chef Pasquale Pintauro, who had a shop in Via Toledo in front of Santa Brigida. It is unknown how Pintauro he comes into possession of the original recipe, but modified it by eliminating the excess of monaco cap protuberance. Thus was born the puff, the “curly”, triangular shaped shell and in its version nota.Da time the city of Naples and marine Conca vie for “paternity” of puff. But who cares where he is born? Curly, short crust, with cream or with the flour, the puff is always na ‘poetry!

Babà

The baba is a typical Neapolitan pastry cake made with yeast dough, whose spongy texture is soaked in a syrup liqueur made with rum which gives it a unique flavor. The origin of the baba goes beyond the borders of Naples: it was invented way back in the eighteenth century by the former Polish king Stanislaw Leszczynski, infuriated by yet another reaction to a very dry sweet, she threw him away, hitting a bottle of rum; the room sprang a particular scent and Stanislaus, curious, tasted the cake soaked in liqueur. He liked it a lot and he dedicated his creation to Ali Baba, the famous character from “The Thousand and One Nights”. The sweet spread throughout Europe and 800, under the rule of the Bourbons, the Neapolitan cuisine he knew the influence thanks to the arrival of “monsù” (French chef) who were called to the city to serve at the noble Neapolitan families. It was thanks to the skill of Neapolitan pastry, through a long rising dough, which the baba became even softer and it was thanks to their inventiveness that this cake took on the typical mushroom shape. The final touch is to wet it with a solution of water and sugar, flavored with lemon and correct to rhum.E ‘also considered the gentle walking can be enjoyed in three mouth-watering bites the streets of sweet city.This center is so deeply rooted in local food culture that the Neapolitan expression “you ‘nu baba” is used to indicate a sweet person, loving and adorable.

Pastiera

The origin of Pastiera is very old and comes from pagan rites to celebrate the arrival of spring. Legend has it that the siren Partenope had chosen as the home the beautiful Bay of Naples and from there singing with melodious and sweet voice. The people then to thank you for this wonderful song brought her gifts, seven gifts to be exact, as the seven wonders of the world, each of which had a meaning:

1) the flour, a symbol of wealth,

2) cottage cheese, symbol of abundance,

3) eggs, symbol of reproduction,

4) the cooked wheat in milk, a symbol of the merger of the animal kingdom and the vegetable,

5) orange flowers, fragrance of Campania,

6) spices, homage of all peoples

7) sugar to cheer the sweetness of the song of the siren.

The siren had regard for the gifts, but collect them in mixed them into an amalgam that he left in his hands the first pastiera of which he was the unwitting author. Pastiera entered then in the Christian tradition by becoming the cake to celebrate with Easter. Still present on the Easter table in all families and is a symbol of peace. The preparation of pastiera is complex, long and laborious. Tradition has it that the pastiera be prepared on Holy Thursday because it is a dessert that aging improves and you can save up to ten days, but not in the refrigerator because otherwise it would spoil quickly.

Struffoli

Although struffoli are the most Neapolitan sweets that there are, seem to have arrived in the Bay of Naples by the Greeks from which derives the name “struffolo”: precisely the word “strongoulos” or rounded. For others, however, it seems that the word derives from struffolo “rub” by referring to the gesture that makes those who work the pasta to roll up the cylinder before cutting into pellets. Some people hold the view that the struffolo as well call it “rubs” or “tickles” the palate for his goodness and who even think that the root of the term “struffoli” is to be connected to lard with which they were originally facts and in which they were fried. It is a typical cake of the Neapolitan tradition consists of many small balls of dough “softly crunchy”, made with flour, eggs, sugar, butter and flavorings; fried in hot oil or lard and, once cooled “wrapped” by the honey and “assembled” donut-shaped or “pyramid”. They decorate with candied fruit, and silver and colorful sugar sprinkles. However, it is still uncertain where they come from, it is certain that they are destined always to enrich the festive tables of Naples, until entering in homes all over Italy center-south acquiring from time to time various forms and names but remaining almost always identical in substance. As with all recipes now “encoded”, struffoli are insidious because many secrets, often jealously guarded. One of these concerns the amount of honey that must be used in copious manner. Without him, this cake would not be the same. Honey is a symbol of sweetness to the point that the little body of the Child Jesus is called “the rock that gives honey.” So it is no coincidence that the struffoli are a dessert that celebrates the nativity.

Drinks

Coffee

The stories about the arrival of coffee in Naples and the incredible impact it had on the Neapolitan culture are different. A first version of events has it that Maria Carolina of Habsburg took with him to Naples the ritual of coffee from Vienna, his home town, following the marriage with Ferdinand of Bourbon. A second story on the introduction of coffee in Naples starring the musicologist Pietro Della Valle, a Neapolitan by adoption, who went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where he discovered the virtues of the famous drink. Back at home twelve years later, Della Valle took with him the coffee beans, introducing the people of Naples to the ritual of coffee. But at the end of the eighteenth century, it was still consumed only by a small elite. Soon, just in Naples, it was invented by Neapolitan coffee maker, the so-called coffee maker that allowed him to leave the coffee infusion system squat and produce the famous dark coffee and dense famous all over the world; even with the subsequent invention of the machine for espresso he is preferred to maintain a dark roast blend of which the Neapolitans had become great teachers quickly enough to gain you your coffee the title of “Neapolitan espresso”. Have you ever heard of the suspended coffee? This was, and in a few cases still is, a practice typical Neapolitan. As is often the case then even in this case the alloy caffèsi campano.In capital What was? In a gesture of solidarity and philanthropy done by someone who entered in a bar with a state of very happy and joyful mood. Thanks to this state of mind, he decided to take a coffee and pay both its consummation, it is the one that would take place after him, adding the money needed to pay for another cup of coffee. Practically, in a nutshell, venivaofferto coffee to a stranger who would enter the room after lui.Se the person later arrived had requested the presence of a suspended coffee, this would certainly went unto him, or to anyone who had requested the presence . How to do? Just say a simple phrase: “Two coffees please, one for me and one suspended.”