Are you in Naples for few days?
Do you want to discover the city and its culture through its food but you only have a week in Naples?
This city is synonymous of street food, so here’s a list of top 10 food in Naples you can’t miss, maybe while having one of our walking tour of Naples!
Before starting with Naples’ specialties, we need to advise you: this list of top 10 food in Naples is full of calories.
Also, creating a top 10 list of food to eat in Naples is actually very hard: my city is full of amazing and unique food specialties. I chosen my list of “must have”. Feel free to comment if you don’t agree with some of them!
Pizza Margherita
The first thing to do in Naples is looking for a pizzeria and asking for a Margherita! It’s really difficult to suggest some name: in Naples there is the “Vera Pizza Napoletana” which is a real brand that protects the authenticity of the product. So let’s get lost in Via dei Tribunali, the street of pizzerias and let’s choose through your nose your pizzeria.
If you don’t have much time you can ask for a “pizza a portafoglio”, a folded pizza (Margherita or Marinara) which is folded in two or four like a portafoglio, a wallet!
We have a tour only dedicated to pizza.
Taralli
If you want to experience a real Neapolitan aperitif, we suggest the famous Taralli: savoury biscuits with almonds, lard, and pepper. In Piazza Bellini (a famous Neapolitan square, meeting point of many young people) Taralli are tasted together with a cold beer or with the famous Spritz!
Cuoppo
Fried food in Naples is a must. Speaking about fried food, we suggest you to try the famous Cuoppo, which is a cone of paper with fried food inside to be eaten in the street! For fish lovers we have the so called “Cuoppo di mare” (“Sea Cuoppo”), while for those who prefer other food we have the variant “Cuoppo di terra” (literary “Land Cuoppo”) with Crocchè (fried mashed potato), Scagliuozzi (fried triangles of cornmeal mush), Frittatine (fried pasta) and many other samples.
Neapolitan Ragù
We don’t care if it’s winter or summer, Neapolitan Sunday means Ragù! It is a Sauce, made with two or three types of meat. The sauce of Ragù must cook for hours, that’s why it is so tasty and unique. Usually we serve it with rigatoni pasta, a type of Maccheroni striped so that the sauce mix with the pasta perfectly. Check our dedicated article if you want to know our secret recipe of the best Neapolitan ragù.
Coffee
Before introducing some of the most famous Neapolitan dessert, among the top 10 we can’t forget coffee! Neapolitan coffee it’s a ceremony and a moment you have to give to yourself, no matter if you’re in a hurry. A suggestion: don’t ask for a coffee to go, we don’t have special cup like the one you’re use to. Better to stop (for few minutes or maybe hours!) and taste our espresso!
Limoncello
Before moving away from the table, Neapolitans love having a small cup of Limoncello and even if the origin is contested among Sorrento, Amalfi and Capri, we all agree by saying that Limoncello is the perfect ending of a meal!
Babà
It is the most iconic dessert of Naples. Yeast based dough dunked with Rhum, when you arrive in Naples it’s one of the first dessert you have to try and there are also some varieties with Nutella, cream or whipped cream. A very new type of Babà is the one served into a plastic cup and cut in levels with cream and small strawberries or other varieties, perfect for street food!
Sfogliatella
Riccia or Frolla? These are like two sisters, different outside (Riccia is made of a kind of “fillo” pastry that’s why it’s crunchy, while Frolla is made of short crust pastry) but with the same heart. Inside there’s ricotta cheese, cooked bran, candied fruit, cinnamon.
Pastiera
This is a typical Easter dessert which is so tasty that you can find it every period of the year. Ricotta cheese, grain wheat, candied fruit, sugar (a lot!), eggs, and a strong persistent scent of orange flowers, inside a pie made with short crust pastry, you can’t miss it!
Fiocco di neve
Last but not least we have a new entry: the snowflakes is born on 2015, but it is soon become a very important dessert for Naples! The filling, very soft is a mix of sheep ricotta, milk and sugar, inside soft brioche. The snowflake is a fresh dessert and a cuddle that if you’re in Naples you have to give to yourself! You can eat the original one here, in Pasticceria Poppella.
If you wish to taste all those food in a couple of hours.. Be brave and check out our Naples food tours!
