Neapolitan Fried Pizza

You do not know the pizza frittata? It's a street-food specialty in Naples. The fried pizza is usually sold on transalpine street food stands, called frigittoria. This pizza from southern Italy has the particularity of a dough folded in on itself and then fried. Halfway between calzone and frying, pizza frittata is also referred to as the “ poor sister of baked pizza ”. A description that refers to the context in which it appeared.

At the end of the Second World War, food became scarce. For most Neapolitans, it is impossible to get their hands on tomatoes and mozzarella to make pizzas. In addition, the wood ovens were destroyed during the bombardments. How to continue to make pizzas without equipment, and without the two main ingredients of the recipe? To cope with this, Neapolitan women show creativity and make the first pizzas without toppings and fried in oil: when fried, the pizza swells like a doughnut filled with air. The frittata pizza was born when the Margherita pizza had become almost a luxury.

In Naples, pizza is a must, so much so that we find it in all its possible variations and variations and it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2017. Just like potato croquettes – also called panzerotti or Crocchè di Patate – the Neapolitan frittata pizza is the expression of the Neapolitan way of life.

Fried pizza is made from the same dough as pizza, but instead of being cooked in a wood-fired oven, it is dipped in hot oil which has the effect of puffing it up. Prepared in the alleys of Naples and in private homes, the pizza fritta is honored in the famous film by Vittorio De Sica, L'oro di Napoli, where Sophia Loren plays the wife of a pizza maker who wants to sell a fried pizza in post-war Naples. Bought on credit, the pizza frittata was nicknamed “ pizza a logged an otto ”, bought today and paid for in 8 days.

The recipe for fried pizza has always varied depending on what the Neapolitans found to garnish it. However, the unchanging ingredient is ricotta cheese (from buffalo of course). Pizza frittata in its natural form has, in addition to the browning of the fried dough, a filling of ricotta, provolone, and different types of cold cuts.

INGREDIENTS: 4 PERS.

500g Pizza flour
320g Water
2g Brewer's yeast
10g Salt
300g Buffalo Ricotta
100g Provola
200g peeled tomatoes
60g Sausage
8 basil leaves
1.3l Sunflower oil

Getting the recipe ready:

Step 1

DOUGH

Pour the sifted pizza flour and brewer's yeast into a bowl. Add 1/4 water and start kneading your pizza dough. Keep adding water little by little and knead the dough. Add the salt when you have poured 3/4 of the total dose of water, and continue to knead.
Add the rest of the water and continue to knead until you obtain a smooth and homogeneous dough. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and roll it with your hands then fold the edges towards the center.

Fold the dough over itself to give it a spherical shape. Transfer the dough to a bowl and cover with cling film. Leave to rise for about 3 hours in a warm place (25-28°C) until the dough has tripled in volume.
When finished rising, transfer the pizza dough to a floured surface. Form a loaf then divide into 4 dough pieces of 220g each. Work each piece of dough by hand to form 4 balls.
Transfer your balls to a tray by distancing them from each other. Cover with unrolled film and leave to rise for another 3 hours in a warm place.

Step 2

THE JOKE

Cut the sausage and provola into small pieces. Prepare the basil leaves and the ricotta: work them for a few moments with a spoon in a bowl to obtain a creamy mixture.
Once the 4 pieces of dough have risen well, spread them with your hands on a floured surface. Create a circular disk 30cm in diameter.
Garnish each pizza evenly to evenly distribute all the ingredients, filling only half and leaving a few centimeters of margin. Spread a layer of ricotta, then mash the peeled tomatoes with a fork and pour them over the ricotta, salting to taste, add a few pieces of sausage and provola without forgetting the hand-cut basil leaves.
Fold the pizzas in half without filling. Seal the edges well to prevent the filling from escaping during cooking.

Step 3

FRYING

Heat the oil in a skillet with raised edges. The oil must reach 170°C. Dip one pizza at a time so as not to cool the oil too much. While cooking wet the pizza well with the hot oil, turn it gently to cook it on all sides, and continue to fry until it gets a nice golden color.
Use a slotted spoon to drain pizza fritta frittata, place onit a paper towel to dry excess oil. The pizza frittata is ready to be enjoyed hot!

Step 4

STORING PIZZA FRITTA

Fried pizza is a dish that must be eaten immediately. It is not recommended to store it in the refrigerator or freeze it after cooking. You can keep the pizza dough in the refrigerator for a day by covering it with aluminum foil or freezing it.

PREPARATION ADVICE

For the topping of the fried pizza, you can replace the buffalo ricotta with cow ricotta, taking care to dilute it with a little cream and lightly salt it.