A Neapolitan street food of leavened pizza dough folded around a filling and deep-fried, rather than baked. The classic filling is ricotta, cubes of provola, cicoli (crisp pork-fat cracklings) and black pepper, sometimes with Neapolitan salami and a little tomato; the disc of dough is folded into a half-moon, sealed, and fried in hot oil until it puffs and turns deep gold. It is eaten hot in the hand. A smaller relative, the montanara, is a little disc of dough fried first, then dressed on top with tomato sauce, provola, grated cheese and basil.
Pizza fritta took its modern shape in Naples in the hardship after the Second World War, when wood-fired ovens lay damaged and the mozzarella and tomato of baked pizza were scarce and dear; frying needed only a pot of oil and cheaper fillings, so it became the «pizza of the people», made and sold in the street largely by women to supplement the family income. It was famously sold on credit as the «pizza a otto» — eaten today, paid for in eight days. Frying dough is far older in Naples, but the filled, deep-fried pizza as a street icon belongs to this postwar period; it has no single recorded inventor.
Bitten hot, the shell is thin, blistered and crisp at once, then chewy underneath, giving way to a molten centre. The ricotta is creamy and faintly sweet, the provola pulls in strings, and the cicoli add salty, savoury crunch and a hit of pork fat; black pepper runs warm through it all. It is rich and greaseless when done right — drained well, the inside steamed soft by the sealed pocket. Fried too cool it drinks oil and turns heavy; too hot and the outside scorches before the centre heats, and a poorly sealed edge bursts and leaks in the oil.
The dough is a leavened bread dough; yeast fermentation builds the gluten network and gas that let it puff dramatically in the oil. Deep-frying works by rapid moisture-to-steam conversion: water in the dough flashes to steam, inflating the pocket and pushing oil out as the surface sets, which is why correctly hot oil — around 170 to 180°C — gives a dry, crisp result rather than a greasy one. The Maillard reaction and some caramelisation brown and flavour the crust. Sealing the edge well is structural: it traps the steam so the pocket inflates and the filling cooks gently inside instead of escaping.
Variations
The montanara is the small open version: a fried dough disc topped with tomato, provola, Parmigiano and basil. Fillings of the folded pizza fritta vary with what is to hand — ricotta and provola is the base, with cicoli, Neapolitan salami, a spoon of tomato, or pepper. A giant calzone-shaped version is sold whole, and a plain, unfilled fried dough called «zeppola» or pizzelle is eaten salted. The same construction underlies the calzone, which is the baked rather than fried cousin.
On the Palate
Where Pizza Fritta sits in the Italian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
8 steps · 40 min active + 1 hour 50 min waiting
- 115 min
Make a soft pizza dough with flour, water, yeast and salt, and knead until smooth.
- 2120 min
Cover and leave to rise until at least doubled, a few hours.
- 38 min
Meanwhile mix the ricotta with cubed provola, chopped cicoli, black pepper and a little salt for the filling.
- 46 min
Divide the dough into balls and roll or stretch each into a thin round.
- 58 min
Place filling on one half of each round, fold over into a half-moon, and press and crimp the edge to seal tightly.
Watch outCrimp the edge tightly sealed around the filling — a weak seam lets steam and cheese burst out and the pocket won't puff.
- 66 min
Heat a deep pot of oil to about 175°C.
- 78 min
Fry the pizze one or two at a time, spooning oil over and turning, until puffed and deep golden on both sides.
Watch outKeep the oil at about one-seventy-five and spoon it over — hot enough and the pocket inflates dry and crisp; too cool and it drinks oil and goes greasy.
- 82 min
Lift out, drain on paper, and eat hot.
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