The wall menu at the great Naples pizzeria-friggitoria Di Matteo saves the best for last: The 27th of 27 listed selections is pizza fritta ripieno, a Neapolitan street food classic.
The puffy golden saucer of “stuffed fried pizza” is traditionally filled with provola and ricotta cheeses, pork (cicoli or salume) and a little tomato sauce.
pizza fritta ripieno – “fried stuffed pizza”
In Naples a friggitoria is a purveyor of fried foods and snacks. A classic pizzeria e friggitoria such as Di Matteo merges the arts of baking and frying.
Outside the Naples pizzeria-friggitoria Di Matteo on a slow day.
Di Matteo was the third stop on my one-day Neapolitan pizza crawl. You can see highlights of that day in my video: 8 Naples Pizzerias in 1 Day & 2 Minutes
What I didn’t quite appreciate about Di Matteo while there earlier this month was that their crust tended to be overly soft and stretchable compared to a number of other Neapolitan pizzerias I sampled.
At first I thought it might have been some of the water content in the tomato and cheese, but it’s clearly endemic to the crust production itself.
Greg – You’re obviously referring to Di Matteo’s baked pizzas, not the fried ones like the ripieno in this video. The first time I tried a Di Matteo Margherita I too was surprised by the softness of the pliable crust. Now I’d be disappointed if they altered the house style. Every pizza in Naples ought not be like every other pizza in Naples, agreed?
Why on earth haven’t I heard of this dish before?!? Thank god there is sooo much out there I haven’t seen yet because I get to learn something new each day. That was pretty cool watching them prepare it…not to mention how good it looked.