Pizza is the most famous food all over the world. Everyone knows what pizza is, its origins, and its ingredients, even those that have never tasted it before.

Many people think about pizza has the only original Italian food and when tourists visit Italy, especially Naples, they just ask for “pizza napoletana”, of course. Actually, Neapolitan cuisine is not just pizza! There are several foods that are as tasty as pizza, even if they are not so famous.

A lot of them can be easily consumed while having a walking tour in Naples because they are usually street food dishes. So, let’s find out more about what to taste during a Naples food tour, beyond the pizza.

Where a real Naples food tour begins: the “cuoppo”

“Cuoppo” is the Neapolitan name for a paper cornet that can be filled up with every type of fried food.

The original cuoppo is made with fried fish such as anchovies, cod,  dough balls filled up with algae, squid rings, and floured and fried octopus. Some places allow you to create a personalized cuoppo mixing fish and other fried foods.

Another version of the cuoppo is the one that contains breaded mozzarella, potato croquettes, mini pasta omelets, vegetables such as aubergines or courgettes, and zucchini flowers stuffed with ricotta cheese. Also, in this version, you could find the “rice arancino” and the “zeppola”. The first one is the typical Sicilian rice ball made with meat and peas. The second one is simply fried dough.

This is the so-called “cuoppo di terra”, literally “cuoppo of the heart” because it is filled with non-sea ingredients.

Recently, someone also invented the “cuoppo dolce”. This sweet version is made with fried dough pieces covered with sugar or chocolate.

While walking along Spaccanapoli look around you and pay attention to those small places where there is a big row on the door, even if it is impossible to sit in. These are the takeaway fried food shops where to taste the original cuoppo.

Ask for it, wait a few minutes – foods are rigorously fried at the moment – choose the sauces, and get your hands dirty. It will be an authentic experience if you are doing a Naples food tour.

Buffalo milk mozzarella

If we want to be precise, buffalo mozzarella is a typical food of Caserta and Salerno, two of the main cities in Campania, which are close to Naples. However, this food is often associated with Naples.

While walking through the city you will find many places where to taste it: from restaurants to street food shops, from dairies to ice-cream parlors. Exactly, the ice cream parlors! Here, the ice cream is made with buffalo milk.

Sfogliatella, babà and pastiera

Finally the sweets. Naples is the capital of pastry shops. There is at least one on every street!

Vanilla and candied fruit aromas pervade the streets and pastry shop windows are a show for eyes, and for palates too. Desserts are big and beautiful, with their icing sugar perfectly spread on the surface.

What to taste: the pastiera, is a typical cake made with ricotta, wheat, and candied fruits; the babà, a very tasty rum-based spoon dessert served with cream; the sfogliatella, – smooth or curly – is a puff pastry sweet stuffed with ricotta cream. It has the shape of a shell. Be careful: the real Neapolitan sfogliatella is the curly one!