Naples is alive with street food. I’m not talking about the food carts, but about the little stalls lining narrow streets packed with pedestrians and speeding motor scooters. Each tiny storefront, more a micro-restaurant than a stand, usually has a point person out front, enticing both tourists and well-heeled locals alike to stop and try their version of Naples’ ubiquitous street treats. There is a beautiful order to the madness.
Before we left home, we had done our homework on the local specialties that were a must-try and we actually managed to taste most of them. There was Il Cuoppo del Mare, a paper cone overflowing with fried seafood; pizza fritta, fried dough stuffed with ricotta and mozzarella or sometimes just sprinkled with sugar (I’m pretty sure that’s where our childhood pasta fritta came from); and taralli, which my sister wrote about recently.
But for me, the true revelation was the frittatina di pasta. Although the name translates to “little frittata”, it isn’t a frittata at all. Imagine a creamy tangle of al dente pasta bound with béchamel, cheeses, and a scattering of fillings, molded, then chilled. The whole thing is then dipped in breadcrumbs and fried until golden and crisp on the outside, tender and gooey on the inside. It’s the kind of street food that demands you stand still, even in the chaos of Naples, just to take in that first glorious bite. They were delicious!
The versions I tried were filled with peas and cooked ham (prosciutto cotto), which were the most common. However, I saw plenty of creativity in these Neapolitan stands: carbonara-style with guanciale and pecorino; sausage and broccoli rabe; artichoke and prosciutto; eggplant and smoked scamorza.
The ones I tried were large, a meal in themselves. In the recipe that follows, I’ve pared them down a bit for more manageable, shareable portions. But the real joy of making frittatine is that once you understand the base: pasta, bechamel, cheese, you can let your imagination take over. The recipe is forgiving and endlessly adaptable. The sky’s the limit, and the possibilities are endless.
If you’re planning a gathering with friends or family, these make for a fun, unexpected addition to your table – crispy, savory little bites of Naples. Just be sure to start the recipe at least a day before you plan to serve them; the mixture needs time to set before frying.
However you fill them, wherever you serve them, take a cue from Naples itself: keep it lively, a bit chaotic, and always full of joy.
Frittatina – The must try Naples street food
- Total Time: 0 hours
- Yield: 8–10 individual servings 1x
Ingredients
Beschiamella Sauce
- 3 tbsp butter
- 3 tbsp flour
- 2 cups milk
- Salt/pepper to taste
- Freshly grated nutmeg to taste
Filling
- 8 oz pasta; traditionally bucatini pasta broken into short pieces (see Note #1)
- 4 oz (or more to taste) Parmesan cheese
- 4 oz (or so) prosciutto cotto (cooked/boiled ham), cubed
- 2 oz frozen petite peas
- Salt/pepper
Batter, Coating and Frying
- ¾ cup flour
- Salt
- Flour
- Panko breadcrumbs
- High temperature frying oil (peanut, corn, sunflower, grapes eed, etc).
Instructions
- The day before, make the besciamella sauce using the quantities shown. There are thousands of recipes online for this classic “mother sauce,” but here’s an easy one to follow: Basic Béchamel Sauce. You can make it ahead of time—there’s no need to keep it warm.
- Cook the pasta until quite al dente—about 2 minutes less than the package directions. Drain and place it in a large bowl. Add the cubed ham, peas, Parmesan cheese, and besciamella sauce. Gently mix until evenly combined. Taste and adjust the seasoning with more Parmesan, salt, and pepper as needed, mixing carefully so you don’t crush the pasta.
Select a baking dish deep enough to hold the pasta at about a 1-inch depth. Line the dish with parchment paper. Fill it with the pasta mixture and smooth the surface with the back of a spoon. Cover with plastic wrap, gently pressing it onto the pasta. Refrigerate overnight.
The next day, remove the chilled pasta from the refrigerator and cut out circles in your desired size. I used a 2½-inch ring mold, but you can make them smaller if you like. A Ball jar or water glass works well as a substitute for a ring mold. Place each puck on a parchment-lined sheet pan.- Make the batter: In a wide bowl (large enough to dip the pucks), combine the flour with a pinch of salt. Gradually add water while whisking until fully incorporated. Continue adding water until you have a smooth, fairly runny batter.
- Set out a plate of panko breadcrumbs. Dip each puck into the batter, coating both sides and the edges. Then place it in the panko, pressing gently to coat all over. Return the coated pucks to the sheet pan.
- Cooking: Air fry them as described in Note #2, or deep-fry each puck. To deep-fry, heat enough oil in your pan to come halfway up the sides of each puck—about 350°F. Carefully add the pucks and fry until golden brown, flipping once (away from you) for even browning. Transfer to paper towels to drain.
- Serve hot or at room temperature. They can also be reheated in the oven.
Notes
- Naples is perhaps the one place in the Italian universe where breaking pasta is allowed let along encouraged. For frittatine, you can use long bucatini noodles and snap them into shorter segments. This is also what many recipes also suggest this for Pasta alla Genovese. You can also use small elbow pasta.
- The last step is deep-frying, but I’ll admit—I’m not big on deep frying. Instead, I gave the pucks a light spray of olive oil all over and popped them into my countertop air fryer for 20 minutes. Still, if you want that authentic crisp, go ahead and deep-fry them as the recipe suggests.
- Prep Time: Start the day before serving