Street food in Naples: pizza in hand, cuoppo, frittatina and sfogliatella

Naples eats standing up: pizza, fried things and sweets arrive in paper, in the hand and on the pavement, and anything that needs a table waits for the next meal. It starts with pizza, because the craft behind it was inscribed on UNESCO's list of intangible heritage in 2017, and the street food that follows is its cheaper, quicker and noisier relative.

Pizza, a craft with a UNESCO stamp

In 2017 UNESCO inscribed the art of the Neapolitan pizzaiuolo: the dough is shaped by hand with rotating movements and baked in a wood-fired oven. According to UNESCO, about 3,000 pizzaiuoli in Naples carry the knowledge, passed on in the bottega beside a master. An EU rule of 2010 recognises only two pizzas, the marinara and the margherita, baked for sixty to ninety seconds at about 485 °C. A margherita averages €6.70 in a Neapolitan pizzeria. L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele has been open since 1870.

FoodWhat else sits on the Neapolitan table, from ragù to pastiera:What to eat in Naples →

Pizza a portafoglio, the wallet pizza

Anyone short of time takes a pizza a portafoglio, a smaller pizza the vendor folds in four along with its paper, to be eaten while walking. A photograph of Bill Clinton eating one on Via dei Tribunali during the G7 summit in Naples in 1994 drew the world's attention to the custom.

Pizza fritta, the pizza paid for in eight days

Fried pizza is the younger, poorer sister of the baked one. After the war women sold it in the street; it was called the "pizza del popolo", the people's pizza, and the famous one was the "pizza a otto", eaten at once and paid for eight days later. It also appears in Vittorio De Sica's 1954 film The Gold of Naples. It is fried in oil, so it is golden and crisp outside and hot within.

Cuoppo, a cone of fried things

From there it is one step to the friggitoria, where everything else is fried. A cuoppo is a cone of absorbent paper filled with fried morsels; the cuoppo di mare holds anchovies, cod, squid and octopus, the cuoppo di terra potato croquettes, arancini, zeppoline and battered vegetables, and the cuoppo dolce sugar-dusted zeppoline. It dates from the 1800s, when poor Neapolitans bought unsold fish at the market, dipped it in batter, fried it and ate it while walking. A cuoppo now costs €4–7, and street food overall €4–7.

Frittatina, pasta in a golden crust

The same counter sells the frittatina di pasta, a smaller version of the Campanian pasta frittata. The pasta is bound with béchamel, dipped in batter and fried until it forms a crust. Inside there is usually minced meat, peas, provola and pancetta or ham, and newer versions add potato and ragù. It is now found in almost every friggitoria in the city, so no particular address is needed, only the queue at the first counter where all of this is frying.

NeighbourhoodsWhich neighbourhoods this walk passes through:The neighbourhoods of Naples →

Sfogliatella and babà, sweets to finish

The finish is in a pasticceria. The sfogliatella comes in two versions: the riccia, of flaky pastry, crackles, and the frolla, of shortcrust, is soft; one costs €1.50–3. It began in the Santa Rosa convent on the Amalfi coast, and the pastry cook Pasquale Pintauro brought it to Naples in 1818 and added the frolla. Babà, a sponge soaked in rum, sits beside it for €1–1.70.

BudgetWhat a day of eating like this costs:What Naples costs →

2 daysThe same walk hour by hour, with museums and churches:Naples in 2 days →