Jo Fernandez-Corugedo finds foodie heaven in the backstreets of Naples
Sara Smarrazzo Gianni Cipriano and Sara Smarrazzo for Culinary Backstreets
Naples Culinary Tour
Carmine, a granita vendor, poses for a portrait with his cart in via dei Tribunali Naples, Italy, on July 13th 2017
Down in the relatively poor south, Naples is often seen as just a place to pass through en route to the Amalfi Coast. But Italy’s third largest city has no inferiority complex at all. Naples has swagger: it’s loud, in your face and full of fun.
Can you blame it? Not only is its historic centre a UNESCO World Heritage site, but centuries of culinary know-how have enabled Neapolitans to brag about the best pizza in Italy – or possibly the world, as pizza was invented here – and heavenly pastries worth the expanding waistline. And it’s culinary delights such as these that have lured us to the Campanian shore.
At the late 19th century Grand Hotel Parker’s, in the posh neighbourhood of Corso Vittorio Emanuele, we breakfast at the rooftop restaurant with its terrace of olive trees and statues, looking out over layers of rooftops leading down to the wide Bay of Naples below. Given our itinerary, wisdom would prescribe a light snack. But there are cured meats and silver platters laden with scrambled eggs and sausages. Worse, there’s a whole round table of cakes laced with sweet almonds and apple.
After all that, we really should walk. Time is short, however, so we take a hair-raising taxi ride – every single car, I note, has a dent or scratch – to the 100-year-old Pasticceria Capriccio in the city centre. Here our genial guide Amedeo Colella, the self-proclaimed ‘king of Naples’ – lecturer, performer, writer and local expert – greets us like old friends and orders coffee and lots of cake.
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Gianni Cipriano Gianni Cipriano and Sara Smarrazzo for Culinary Backstreets
Lemons, garlic and a watermelon are seen here at "In Tabula", a cafe and lunch restaurant in Piazza Bellini in Naples, Italy, on July 13th 2017
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Gianni Cipriano Gianni Cipriano and Sara Smarrazzo for Culinary Backstreets
A Limoncello production lab and store is seen here under the Basilica of San Paolo Maggiore (formerly the Roman temple built in the 1st centure a.D. and dedicated to Castor and Pollux), in Naples, Italy, on July 13th
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Gianni Cipriano Gianni Cipriano and Sara Smarrazzo for Culinary Backstreets
(From front to back) a A pistacchio caprese cake, a "Ponti Nuovi" pastry and a pistacchio pastiera are seen here at Mazz, a patisserie in via dei Tribunali in Naples, Italy, on July 13th 2017
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Gianni Cipriano Gianni Cipriano and Sara Smarrazzo for Culinary Backstreets
A man eats a "frittatina" (fried pasta) here at Pizzeria Di Matteo in Via dei Tribunali in Naples, Italy, on July 13th 2017
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Gianni Cipriano Gianni Cipriano and Sara Smarrazzo for Culinary Backstreets
Freselles are seen here at Antonio Di Paolo's Freselle bakery at Porta Capuana in Naples, Italy, on July 13th 2017
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Sara Smarrazzo Gianni Cipriano and Sara Smarrazzo for Culinary Backstreets
Enzo Apicella cuts a codfish at Baccaleria Russo of Porta Capuana in Naples, Italy, on July 13th 2017
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Gianni Cipriano Gianni Cipriano and Sara Smarrazzo for Culinary Backstreets
Freselles, salami, bufalo mozzarella and tomateos are seen here at Antonio di Paolo's Freselle bakers at Porta Capuana in Naples, Italy, on July 13th 2017
Naples born and bred, Amedeo never ceases to extol the virtues of Neapolitan culinary history and the producers that keep it alive. A tour guide with Culinary Backstreets, which runs small group food tours around the world, he knows everyone here by name. In the kitchen of Pasticceria Capriccio he introduces us to owner Raffaele Capparelli, who is happily wielding trays of rum baba – a treasure imported from France centuries ago. The Neapolitan version is a fragrant sponge drenched with sugary rum. So beloved is the rum baba here that ‘baba’ has become a local term of endearment.
Contentedly full of sweet things, we stroll along Via Carbonara, past shops with bunches of sweet piennolo tomatoes tied up with string for longevity, and on past the elephant trunklike Porta Capuana, old city gates dating back to 1484. Here Neapolitans buy their daily baccalà (salted cod) – a Christmas Eve tradition. At Antica Baccaleria Russo they slice it thinly before drenching it in lime juice to create a ceviche, which is delicate and reviving after custardy cakes.
Across the road the Sant’Antonio Abate market mixes fresh live seafood, curly local broccoli (friarielli), fake handbags and fake cigarettes, while Antonio and Cristina’s pizza fritta (precursor to the oven version) is a hot, cheese and tomato envelope of dough crisped in a rusty old oil drum.
Now Amedeo beckons us through a courtyard to meet Antonio di Paulo, a seventh generation baker of friselle who rises at 4am each day to churn out up to 10,000 of these dried, hard, circular breads – one surely has to be Neapolitan to love them – to sell to restaurants around the region as an accompaniment for soup.
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Gianni Cipriano Gianni Cipriano and Sara Smarrazzo for Culinary Backstreets
Pasquale O' Nummanaro (Pasquale The Number Man) makes hand made signs used by food businesses and fruit and vegetable vendors all over Naples are seen here in his workshop in Naples, Italy, on July 13th 2017
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Gianni Cipriano Gianni Cipriano and Sara Smarrazzo for Culinary Backstreets
Babas are seen here at Bar Capriccio in Naples, Italy, on July 13th 2017
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Gianni Cipriano Gianni Cipriano and Sara Smarrazzo for Culinary Backstreets
Piennolo tomatoes from Mount Vesuvius hang in "Da Agostino", a grocery store in Naples, Italy, on July 13th 2017
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Gianni Cipriano Gianni Cipriano and Sara Smarrazzo for Culinary Backstreets
The interior of "Da Agostino", a grocery store in Naples, Italy, on July 13th 2017
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Gianni Cipriano Gianni Cipriano and Sara Smarrazzo for Culinary Backstreets
A barman is seen here at work at Mazz, a patisserie in via dei Tribunali in Naples, Italy, on July 13th 2017
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Gianni Cipriano Gianni Cipriano and Sara Smarraz
A Limoncello production lab and store is seen here under the Basilica of San Paolo Maggiore (formerly the Roman temple built in the 1st centure a.D. and dedicated to Castor and Pollux), in Naples, Italy, on July 13th 2017
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Sara Smarrazzo Gianni Cipriano and Sara Smarrazzo for Culinary Backstreets
A granita is prepared here at Carmine's granita mobile cart in via dei Tribunali Naples, Italy, on July 13th 2017
Nearby another bakery is busy with trays of rococo, a crispy, flat, doughnut-shaped biscuit full of almonds. Laden with samples, we wander along the Spaccanapoli, a narrow, mainly pedestrianised area with side streets hung with washing. All Naples life is here. Amedeo stops to buy arancini, named after the little oranges that these crispy rice balls stuffed with hot peas and mozzarella resemble.
Just off the Spaccanapoli, Limoné – a small shop-cum-factory – is a shrine to limoncello, producing 100 bottles a day of the neon-yellow liqueur made from organic lemon peel soaked in 96% alcohol infused with water and sugar. The green lemons used grow in the volcanic soil of Campi Flegrei, west of Naples. So we take the Limoné tour, ending with a glass of limoncello itself.
And so to lunch (yes, truly) at cult pizzeria Sorbillo, where – in the best Neapolitan tradition – the 21 pizzas are named after 21 family members. Customers gather outside, where names are taken and then called out over the Tannoy once a table is ready. Huge, thin, wood-fired margheritas with authentic charred base come topped with fresh tomato, mozzarella and basil, all for about £3.50.
Finally, at 2pm, it’s over to the Mazz bar and café, established in 1935 and still selling the famous rum baba and sfogliatella, a local breakfast staple consisting of buttery, flaky pastry cases filled with ricotta sweetened with sugar, egg and citrus fruit.
And...breathe: the tour is complete. Despite its stately buildings and peaceful parks, much of Naples is scruffy and covered with graffiti. And yet, thanks in no small measure to its food, it is one of the most welcoming cities I have ever visited. Rest of the world, eat your heart out. Mine is with my stomach in Naples.
Plan your trip… Three nights at Grand Hotel Parker’s from £498pp b&b (based on two sharing), including return flights on easyJet, private car transfers, Kirker Guide Notes to restaurants, museums and sightseeing, and the services of the Kirker Concierge. Kirker Holidays: (020) 7593 1899; kirkerholidays.com. The Culinary Secrets of Backstreet Naples tour, from Culinary Backstreets, costs US$135 (approx £96) pp, bookable on demand (culinarybackstreets.com)
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