The Neapolitan cuisine

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The specialities that make up the Neapolitan cuisine are varied and all to try at least once. Wouldn't you like to spend the day among a pizza, a cuoppo, a rice sartù or a nice ragù, all seasoned with a sweet delicacy like a sfogliatella or a slice of pastiera with Vesuvius and the sea that surround you? You are in the right place!

Naples and its cuisine have always been admirers since the times of Johann Goethe who, in addition to the beauty of the city, could not help trying the Neapolitan specialities in vogue at his time.

But let's discover the Neapolitan cuisine together.

The history of Neapolitan cuisine

Neapolitan cuisine has its origins in the various dominations that have populated the city for about 2000 years. Since the times of the Greeks and Romans, throughout the French and Spanish dominations, the Neapolitan cuisine has been enriched with specialities ranging from the most elaborate to the most popular ones.

A basic product dates back to ancient dominations, still widely used today, that is, the anchovy sauce from the bay of Cetara along the Amalfi coast, while it is in the Middle Ages that many recipes related to legumes and native vegetables date back. The success of pasta dates back to the sixteenth century since with the advent of poverty among the plebs and famines it was legitimate to make use of foods that could be preserved for a long time, transforming the Neapolitans from leaf-eaters to pasta eaters. During the Enlightenment and the French domination, the influence from beyond the Alps is very evident in the Neapolitan cuisine: the Neapolitan ragù, the potato gateau and the famous crocchè are born. In the nineteenth century, the gap between the bourgeoisie and the poor became wider, so much so that recipes reserved for the different classes began to be prepared, such as the octopus broth and the freselle soup typical of the Neapolitan suburbs. The birth of pizza as we know it today, with its various variations, can also be traced back to this period.

With the advent of globalization and major brands, traditional cuisine began to lose its appeal but then rediscovered it in the second half of the twentieth century thanks also to the value of the products that made up the famous Mediterranean diet, today a UNESCO heritage site.

The most popular recipes of Neapolitan cuisine

The traditional specialities of the Neapolitan cuisine are many and it is unimaginable to be able to discard some of them, for this your taste is very important, even if all deserve to be tried. Here is a selection of the best typical recipes of the Neapolitan cuisine that you can't miss.

The Neapolitan ragù

The ragù is the undisputed king of the Neapolitan culinary Sunday. Unlike other national ragùs, Neapolitan ragù has its recipe which makes it a true masterpiece of traditional cuisine. It is a perfect combination of tomato and meat which, on a slow fire, mix and blend in a sacred and indissoluble sauce that never fails on Neapolitan Sunday.

Different types of meat are used, from the beef locena to the pork meat, which must cook on a low heat for about 6 hours, but the fundamental step is that the sauce must compulsorily peppiare, i.e. let it simmer. All surrounded with a basil leaf at the end of cooking and you're done.

The real Neapolitan pizza

The Neapolitan specialities, par excellence, is pizza in all its possible forms. From simple pizza Margherita with mozzarella and tomato to fried pizza full of delicacies, pizza is the emblem of the Neapolitan people in the world.

In every corner of Naples, you can not find a pizzeria from the historical to the more recent ones all offer a traditional pizza but with the addition of a particular staff that distinguishes it from all the others: from the use of ingredients for the preparation of the dough until the composition of the pizza itself.

Telling you to try typical pizza in Naples is almost obvious, so I can't help but recommend other recipes related to pizza in Naples such as escarole pizza or the so-called 'chiena' pizza

The eggplant parmigiana: a Neapolitan dish

The eggplant parmigiana is one of the typical specialities of Neapolitan cuisine. Often served as a side recipe, it embellishes Neapolitan Sunday. The base is the eggplants which are fried and then laid out on a bed of tomatoes sauce and so on for various layers interspersed with a level of fiordilatte which makes it compact and stringy.

The eggplant parmigiana is a must that you cannot do without.

The macaroni omelette

In a period in which recycling has become obligatory, the Neapolitans also place themselves as precursors in the cuisine. The macaroni omelette is a speciality that recycles the old pasta and transforms it into an amalgam that everyone likes. Spaghetti or even other types of old pasta melt together with eggs and parmesan cheese, but for gourmets, provola and various cold cuts are often added.

The omelette is an ecological recipe in all that should be enjoyed cold to allow the perfect fusion of all the ingredients even the next day.

Fish dishes from Neapolitan cuisine

As a good seaside city, Naples also has its culinary specialities dedicated to the sea. The masterpieces of the cuisine that you cannot help but try are the sea cuoppo, in which you will find a mixture of fish specialities fried from squid to shrimp, and the peppered mussel, a mussel soup topped with lots of pepper and lemon.

But the most renowned speciality in the kitchen can only be the Luciana octopus. Born in the district of Santa Lucia, a stone's throw from the sea, the Luciana octopus is cooked in tomato sauce with the addition of capers and olives and can be served indifferently as a first course with spaghetti but also as a simple second course.

The dishes of Neapolitan cuisine during the holidays

In Naples, the holidays are deeply felt and this can only reverberate within the typical cuisine that has particular recipes depending on the holiday.

Christmas offers real binges in Naples. The Christmas dish par excellence is the eel, which in Naples becomes the capitone, fried together with the cod which with its strong aroma dominates the Neapolitan kitchens at Christmas. At Easter, however, the typical recipe is the casatiello. Dough is full of cold cuts and various cheeses on which fresh eggs are placed which will become hard during cooking.

The typical desserts of the Neapolitan cuisine

In Naples, a sector that often creates appeal is that of desserts. Neapolitan sweets are famous and desired all over the world. The most famous is the babà, king of the Neapolitan desserts, and its worthy queen, the sfogliatella in its curly and shortcrust forms. To these are added a string of various sweets that often bind to holidays such as Christmas struffoli or Easter pastiera.

Enjoy true Neapolitan cuisine in a nineteenth-century villa in Naples

These are just some of the masterpieces that the Neapolitan culinary tradition offers us, but there are many others that you will discover as soon as you come here. If you are interested in trying real Neapolitan cuisine, run to Naples and if you want to delight your palate with these specialities, I cannot help but recommend a unique place: Il Marchese, a restaurant and pizzeria in San Giorgio a Cremano, a stone's throw from Naples, which for decades offers the tastes of traditional Neapolitan cuisine linked to our rich culture.

 From fish recipes to first choice meats up to zero km vegetables, the Marquis is an obligatory stop. Housed in an old nineteenth-century villa, il Marchese offers a wide range of culinary choices, all seasoned with a beautiful event room with beautiful works of art, edited by the Impressionist painter, Luigi Fabron.

Naples and its cuisine await you. What are you still doing there?