Pizza fritta: pizzerias vs "vasci"

Pizza fritta (fried pizza) is one of Naples' best-known street foods worldwide. There's no one who finds themselves in Naples without trying one: light dough, ricotta, cicoli (crispy pork cracklings), salami, provola cheese (and whatever else takes your fancy), all fried quickly to ensure crispiness and softness at the same time.

by Alessia Giannino

Pizza fritta is one of Naples' street foods best known throughout the world.

There's no one who finds themselves in Naples without trying one: light dough, ricotta, cicoli, salami, provola cheese (and whatever else takes your fancy), all fried quickly to ensure crispiness and softness at the same time.

As we mentioned in a previous article, pizza fritta was born in the post-war period: originally it was made of dough alone and cost far less than one baked in a wood-fired oven; then, just like the classic pizza, the fried version evolved too, and various fillings were devised, making it even more delicious.

We've already discovered which pizzerias serve the best pizza fritta.

La Neapolitan tradition, however, is so distinctive that even this dish has a history made of vasci (ground-floor homes) and grandmothers, who used to fry this “street food” in their own houses.

In Naples, a vascio is a two- or three-room ground-floor house whose front door opens directly onto the street. Even today, alongside the many historic and modern pizzerias, there are a couple of vasci that crowds still flock to for genuine, cheap and delicious pizza fritta.

Map of the most foodie "vasci" in Naples

In Quartieri Spagnoli (Spanish Quarters), right in the beating heart of Naples, precisely at Via Speranzella 180, you'll find Fernanda, a lady with a permanent smile on her lips, who has been frying pizza fritta for decades in her historic vascio. The business, inherited from her mother, makes her perhaps one of the few still kneading the dough by hand. Fernanda is utterly delightful and invites her customers to make themselves at home, where there's a family atmosphere and a truly special feel. It's like stepping back in time, into one of those 1950s films. The panaro (a basket lowered on a rope from the window) is a lifeline for Fernanda's neighbours, who have their favourite pizza fritta, still warm, placed inside it. The full version comes with ricotta, cicoli, provola, tomato and pepper, all ingredients chosen with great care by the cook herself. A large full pizza costs just €2.50; the small one €1.50.

Another famous vascio is that of Gennaro 'ngopp 'e chianche (on the butcher's slabs). From Piazza Carità you need to climb a little alley that also leads into Quartieri Spagnoli and, leaning out of his window at Via Simonelli 38, you'll always find Gennaro, open 24 hours a day. With a dazzling smile just like Fernanda's, he always has his hands in the dough. Here too the full pizza fritta is a must, costing €4. The dough is light and crispy: absolutely worth trying.

There are probably other "pizzerias in the vasci" out there too: one, certainly, was that of Don Giuann', which sadly has now closed.

All that's left to do is take a stroll through Quartieri Spagnoli and lose yourself hunting for some hidden pizzeria tucked between the walls of the houses!