Naples, Campania (Quartieri Spagnoli)
The original Neapolitan pizza before wood-fired ovens were accessible to the poor: pizza dough stuffed with ricotta and cicoli (the crispy browned remnants left after rendering lard from pork fat) or provola, folded calzone-style and deep-fried in lard. Associated with the postwar poverty cuisine of the Quartieri Spagnoli — Sophia Loren famously sold pizza fritta as a girl. The lard gives the exterior a richer, more complex flavour than vegetable oil frying.
Blistered, golden, faintly smoky from lard frying — the crust shatters to reveal molten ricotta and crackling cicoli inside; the original street food of Neapolitan poverty
{"Standard pizza dough (00 flour, water, salt, yeast) with 12–24 hour cold ferment for structure","Filling placed on one half: ricotta drizzled with olive oil, cicoli, provola cubes, and black pepper","Fold and seal well — press edges firmly, then fold-seal twice to prevent filling escaping","Fry in lard at 175°C; the dough should be submerged; spoon hot fat over the exposed side","Drain briefly, dust with salt, eat within 3 minutes — they deflate and become oily at room temperature"}
{"Cicoli are the Neapolitan equivalent of French grattons — render pork fat slowly to make your own","A scrape of bottarga over the finished pizza fritta is a modern chef's refinement","The pizza fritta tradition of Naples includes sweet versions: filled with Nutella — not traditional but widely beloved"}
{"Sunflower oil instead of lard — the flavour profile changes fundamentally","Poor sealing — ricotta weeps into the fat causing splatter and collapse","Cold dough — it won't puff properly; bring to room temperature 1 hour before frying"}
La Cucina Napoletana — Jeanne Caròla Francesconi