Fantastic fried pizzas and where to find them

The classic version is the famous cicoli e ricotta (pork cracklings and ricotta), but nowadays there are countless variations around. There's everything from the one with salami and provola cheese to the one with scarole (curly endive). What matters is that it's fried well, crispy outside and soft inside, with a heart of melting provola or tomato, which inevitably gets all over your hands!

by Alessia Giannino

Fried pizza is one of the must-haves of Neapolitan street food. An explosion of flavours.

Origins

Fried pizza was born in the post-war period and, initially, was nothing more than an empty pizza, since frying was much cheaper than baking in a wood-fired oven. Then, little by little, things evolved, and so, especially the wealthier people who could afford it, began to enjoy the one filled with cicoli (pork cracklings).

Today, fried pizza is “’a masta” (the queen/mistress) of street food in Naples, thanks also to Gino Sorbillo who, even beneath Milan's "Madonnina" (the golden statue atop the Duomo), launched the Zia Esterina Sorbillo concept, where the undisputed ruler is none other than fried pizza itself.

Here's a list of pizzerias where you can try it.

Esterina Soribillo - in Naples, but also in Milan, as mentioned, you can eat this excellent fried pizza, golden and just greasy enough. There are several variations: from the classic to the one with Mario Tortora's meatballs. Prices start from 3.50 euros upwards, take-away. You grab it and eat it in the street, burning your hands and your palate, but that hardly matters for such a unique pleasure.

La figlia del Presidente (The President's Daughter) - among the children of the presidential pizza maker Ernesto Cacialli, Maria is the queen of fried pizza. Her pizzeria is located on Via del Grande Archivio and on her menu there are two fried pizzas available: the full one and the one with sausages and friarielli (Neapolitan broccoli rabe).

Di Matteo - when the plate with the fried pizza arrives, every customer in the pizzeria turns to look at this undisputed masterpiece. Beautiful to look at and delicious to taste. At Di Matteo, the full pizza with cicoli, ricotta and pepper costs 6 euros, but the menu also features the one that won the Wordcup 2011 award, with ricotta, cicoli, buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes and cheese.

Da Fernanda - in the Quartieri Spagnoli (Spanish Quarters), at Via Speranzella 180, there she is, Signora Fernanda, who for decades has been frying pizzas in her vascio (a small ground-floor Neapolitan dwelling). The frying shop, inherited from her mother, is still hugely famous today. The classic pizza comes in two sizes: the large one, at 3 euros, and the small one at 2 euros, plus a wide selection of zeppole, panzarotti and ciurilli (fried courgette flowers). On summer evenings, some have this guilty pleasure sent up directly in the panariello (a small basket lowered from a window on a rope), which rises up carrying the unique scent of freshly made pizza.

La Masardona - a nearly century-old frying shop, on Via Giulio Cesare Capaccio 27, near the Stazione Centrale (Central Station). Piccirillo and his team knead and fry hundreds of pizzas a day. Thin, light and fragrant dough, with countless filling variations. The full one costs 4.50 euros, but the more elaborate ones cost a bit more, like the Palamaro, with lupin beans and pork scraps, at 7.50 euros.