Neapolitan cuisine
Neapolitan cuisine has ancient historical roots that date back to the Greco-Roman period, which was enriched over the centuries by the influence of the different cultures that controlled Naples and its kingdoms, such as that of Aragon and France.
A vast variety of recipes is influenced by the local aristocratic cuisine, such as timballo and the sartù di riso, pasta or rice dishes with very elaborate preparation, and dishes from popular traditions prepared with inexpensive but nutritionally healthy ingredients, like pasta e fagioli (lit.
The Roman garum is the ancient sauce most similar to that used for the modern colatura di alici, typical of Cetara.
The use of wheat in the modern pastiera cake, typical of Easter, could have had originally a symbolic meaning, related to cults of Artemis, Cybele and Ceres and pagan rituals of fertility, celebrated around the Spring equinox.
These were embellished over the centuries and came into contact with the influence of the aristocratic cuisine, so that today traditional recipes of the poorer classes have often acquired great quality and taste, while preserving the original simple ingredients.
Pasta was not invented in Naples, but one of the best grades available is found quite close by, in Gragnano, and in Torre Annunziata, a few kilometers from the capital.
In reporting this, Francis Steegmuller, a longtime resident of Naples, remarks on the French-inspired gattò, in which "the potato complement is nearly overwhelmed by cheese, ham and other ingredients".
The famous conserva (sun dried concentrated juice) tomato is cooked for a long time and becomes a dark red cream with a velvety texture.
Some Campanian dishes using vegetables, like the parmigiana di melanzane (aubergine pie) or peperoni ripieni (stuffed peppers) can become real stars of the table.
Lettuce, and more often the incappucciata (a local variety of the iceberg lettuce), more crispy, is mixed with carrots, fennel, rucola (some time ago it spontaneously grew in landfields, and was sold in the streets together with the less noble pucchiacchella), radishes, traditionally the long and spicy ones, which today are more and more rare, almost completely replaced by the round and sweeter ones.
[3] Cheeses, both soft and aged, are an important part of the Italian diet and also have their place in Neapolitan cooking: some recipes are descended from very old Roman traditions.
Dr Johnson's friend Hester Thrale was enthusiastic for "the most excellent, the most incomparable fish I ever ate; red mullets large as our mackerel, and of singularly high flavour; beside calamaro or ink-fish, a dainty worth of imperial luxury".
Fishes of very small size are also used: The baccalà (cod) and stockfish, imported from northern Europe seas, are either fried or cooked with potatoes and tomatoes.
Shellfish cozze (mussels), vongole (clams), cannolicchi (Ensis siliqua, taratufi, telline (Donax trunculus), sconcigli (Haustellum brandaris) are employed in many seafood meals, and sometimes are eaten raw, but this happens more and more seldom nowadays.
'garlic and oil'), down to a wide variety of sauces, with vegetables or seafood, up to the ragù, southern Italy's creativity enhances its pasta dishes.
An imaginative recipe was created on the tables of the poor, where the expensive shellfishes were missing: spaghetti, dressed with cherry tomatoes sauce, garlic, oil and parsley are called spaghetti alle vongole fujute, where clams are present only in the imagination of the people eating the dish.
The Neapolitan ragù is also used, together with fior di latte, to dress the gnocchi alla sorrentina [it], then cooked in oven in a small single-portion clay pot (pignatiello).
The most famous rice dish is the sartù di riso, a sort of timballo made with rice, stuffed with chicken livers, sausage, little meatballs, fior di latte or provola, peas, mushrooms, and with Neapolitan ragù, or, in the white version (in bianco) with béchamel sauce.
'fisherman's risotto'), prepared with various mollusks (different types of clams, squid and cuttlefish), shrimps and a broth made from the boiling of seafood shells.
In 1889 he prepared in honor of queen Margherita of Savoy a nationalistic pizza, where the colours of the Italian flag were represented by the mozzarella (white), tomato (red) and basil (green).
One of the most famous main courses is a seafood dish recipe coming from the quarter "Santa Lucia": polpi alla lucìana, octopus cooked with chili pepper and tomato.
Mussels are prepared in different ways: rapidly steamed with black pepper (all'impepata), and dressed with a few drops of lemon juice each; also cooked al gratin.
Clams and other shellfishes are also cooked sauté, rapidly passed in a large pan with olive oil, garlic, and served on crust breads.
The most famous are: Fried fish was already mentioned above in the text; many vegetables are deep-fried with flour and egg (dorate e fritte): artichoke, zucchini, cauliflower.
Mozzarella can be prepared dorata e fritta as well and also in carrozza, passed in flour and egg together with two bread slices softened in milk, to form a small sandwich.
It is typically done with spaghetti alle vongole, followed by capitone fritto and baccalà fritto (deep fried eel and stockfish); as a side-dish there is the insalata di rinforzo [it], a salad made with steamed cauliflower, giardiniera, spicy and sweet peppers (pupaccelle), olives and anchovies, all dressed with oil and vinegar.
As dessert, there is the sanguinaccio dolce with savoiardi biscuits, or also the chiacchiere, diffused all over Italy with different names.
The sweet and tasty yellow peach ('o percuoco c' 'o pizzo, in Neapolitan) is also sometimes used, chopped in pieces to add flavor to red wine coming from Monte di Procida, cold and somewhat similar to Spanish sangria.
From Mergellina to Via Caracciolo there are still several little shops selling taralli nzogna e pepe (salty biscuits with pork's fat and black pepper).
A few decades ago, street shops sold 'o spassatiempo, a mix of baked hazelnuts, pumpkin seeds, toasted chickpeas and lupins under brine.
