Contents

1. 1 Restaurants
2. 2 Gelato
3. 3 Wines
4. 4 Pizza
5. 5 Regional Specialties
   1. 5.1 Pastries
   2. 5.2 Caffè
   3. 5.3 Mozzarella di Buffala
   4. 5.4 Local Produce
6. 6 Places to shop for food
7. 7 Recipes

Restaurants

Naples offers a number of tasty restaurants, featuring hearty Southern Italian cooking, seafood, and pizza.  See the list of recommended restaurants.  Thanks to campinilismo, there is very little non-Southern Italiain food available in Naples, but a few are on our restaurant list.  Also see the Italian Culture Page's section on Restaurants and a list of food words for deciphering the menu.

Neapolitans claim to have invented ice cream; whether they did or not, they sure make it well!  See the gelato page for a list of good gelaterie.

Italy and Campania have a wide variety of great wines; some of them are described and reviewed on the wine page.

Naples is the birthplace of the pizza, and thus is famed to have the best in the world.

Regional Specialties

The following are other specialties of Naples and the surrounding region (Campania):

Pastries

• Sfogliatelle (a flaky pastry filled with sweet riccotta served riccia with flaky puff pastry or frolla with shortcrust dough...
• Baba (a spongy pastry in the shape of a mushroom soaked in rum...
• Recommended pastry shops:
• Attanasio's near Piazza Garibaldi is known for its sfogliatella, see this page for more
• Pintauro, on Via Toledo, which invented the sfogliatella--few things are better than their riccia fresh out of the oven.
  
• Scaturchio, a fancy pasticceria at P. San Domenica Maggiore in the Centro Storico is famous for having excellent pastries incliuding baba).
• Mary's (a branch is in Galeria Umberto and on Spaccanapoli)
• Also see the Pozzuoli page for other recommended pastry shops

Caffè

• Espresso caffè (coffee) is a specialty in Naples, and many coffee-holics swear that it's the best in the world.
• Among the best places is Caffè Mexico, which has nothing to do with Mexico, but which brews up wonderful, local Passalaqua beans.  Caffè Mexico can be found in Piazza Dante, Piazza Garibaldi, on Via Toledo, and a few other locations throughout the city.
• See the Italian culture page for how to order caffè.

Mozzarella di Buffala

• Fresh buffalo mozzarella cheese, more liquid than solid, is a regional specialty, especially in the areas near Caserta and Paestum.
• Some of the most prized mozzarella is from Tenuta Vanulo near Paestum, an all-organic producer which only sells on the premises
  
• The best mozzarella can be eaten alone, but is also excellent with tomatoes & basil in an insalata carpese (Capri-style salad), or with prosciutto or melon.
• Fior di latte is a similar cheese made from cow's milk, which is less creamy, although as a result some argue that it therefore makes better pizzas.

Limoncello

• A strong but sweet after-dinner digestivo (digestive) produced from the peels of local lemons.
• Limoncello is particularly popular--and some of the best limoncello comes from--Sorrento, the Amalfi Coast, and the islands (Ischia, Capri, and Procida).
• Some of the best places to sample are at Jasmine's Bottecuccia in Sorrento and Limonè downtown.

Local Produce

Various parts of Campania are known for certain kinds of produce.  San Marzano tomatoes (near Vesuvius), Sorrento/Amalfi/Island lemons (and limoncello), Friarielle (broccoli greens, which taste a bit like collard greens--a local favorite), Paestum artichokes...

Places to shop for food

...range from big hypermarkets to tiny stores.  See the shopping page for more.

Recipes

###link to recipes for limoncello, insalata caprese, bruschetta...###