Pizza Fritta da Fernanda

Pizza fritta da Fernanda is a fried-pizza stall in the Quartieri Spagnoli in Naples, run from the doorway of a basso, the single-room ground-floor dwelling characteristic of the district, on Via Speranzella. Pizza fritta is dough folded around a filling, typically ricotta, provola, black pepper and cicoli, the crisp remains of rendered pork fat, then deep-fried rather than baked. It spread across Naples after the Second World War, when many households had no working oven and frying was the cheaper method. Here it is cooked to order at a small hob just inside the door, handed over wrapped in paper and eaten standing in the street. There is no seating and no dining room; the operation is a family business rather than a restaurant, and prices are in line with other Neapolitan friggitorie. Hours run from late morning into the afternoon or evening and vary through the week. The nearest metro station is Toledo on Line 1, a short walk downhill.