7 Hands Down Best Italian Street Foods You Can Get In Naples, Italy

Naples, Italy is known for many things, one of them being the ridiculous amount of street food available at essentially any given hour. Visiting for a month, I made it my mission to try as many of these snacks as I could and roundup the best of the best. A combination of research, personal taste testing, and recommendations from friends living in the city (including some native Neopolitians) led me to create this list.

Here you'll find a lot of fried foods, including a whole pizza, as well as pasta, seafood, and even some veggies sneaking their way in. While this is by no means a comprehensive list of every single Italian food you need to try at least once, these are the top must-try hits to keep an eye out for as you stroll the city streets of Naples. I did not include pastries (which are mostly considered breakfast fare, though you can find them around the clock) or gelato, instead sticking to the savory staples.

Frittatina is a small pasta frittata. One variation is made of about a cup of pasta coated in sauce (often ragu or cacio e pepe), rolled into a ball, and fried. Sometimes it will be covered in breadcrumbs, other times it will be just battered. Often it also contains pieces of ham or bacon inside, so ask "senza carne" if you're trying to avoid meat.

The other variation of this resembles a slice of pie (or, you know, a frittata). Instead of being coated in batter or breadcrumbs and fried, the pie version uses beaten egg to hold the pasta strands together. It is fried on the stovetop in a larger pie and then sliced into individual portions. While a handful of (sometimes room temperature) leftover spaghetti or macaroni might seem unappealing, it's one of Italy's regional foods you simply must try, and the perfect way to eat pasta while you stroll down the streets of Naples.

Mashed potatoes couldn't get any better, right? Wrong. In Naples, they take things to the next level. You can find crocche di patate in street food stands around the city, which are small servings of mashed potatoes coated in breadcrumbs and deep fried. 

Perfection in three or four bites, the soft, luscious mashed potato center is wrapped in a crispy, crunchy exterior for the ultimate textural experience. Sometimes crocche di patate will come stuffed with ingredients inside like cheese, meat, or peas, but often they're left simple. One word of warning, these are seriously dense; I always have to hold back when ordering one and remind myself looks can be deceiving. The palm-sized treat easily fufills a craving for more than just a light snack. If you can't make it to Naples you can create a similar version at home with leftover mashed potatoes.

Between spritzs, you'll want to give suppli and/or arancini a try. Both are rice balls, with suppli coming stuffed with tomato sauce. Arancini can come with almost anything inside it, but I often go for the creamy cacio e pepe.

Expect perfectly cooked rice rolled around a beautiful, tasty filling, coated in breadcrumbs and then fried. Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, it's hard to beat these tasty little snacks.

Escarole pie is a piece of pie (often a square slab or your classic pie slice shape) stuffed with cooked escarole. Some will contain cheese, others walnuts or hazelnuts so be sure to ask "senza formaggio" or "senza noci" if you have an allergy.

When it comes to the perfect piece of escarole pie, the crust is crispy and flaky. The bitter greens cook down into a soft, savory filling with just the slightest bit of tartness. When given the option, I always go for the pie with cheese as I feel the acid the greens are cooked in compliments the melty cheese perfectly, leaving you with a lovely little hand pie that hits all the flavors. The nuts add a subtle crunch for those looking for a more interesting textural experience.

Cuppo is a large paper cone full of various small fried foods. Usually it's seafood, but sometimes they'll throw in some veggies as well for variation; most often, zucchini sticks.

The batter is light and the seafood is as fresh as you could imagine. (Many places selling cuppo actually are fishmongers or stalls conviently located a few steps from a fishmonger.) Some places will let you pick your fish while others have a set mix they give you, but expect a selection of small fish such as anchovies, octopus or squid, chunks of white fish, and shrimp. These come with a little fork, chopsticks, or a toothpick to make eating the tasty, small morsels easier and to help keep your hands grease-free.

Translated to "wallet pizza," pizza a portafioglio is a whole pizza folded up into quarters so it's vaguely the size of a slice of pizza. Believe it or not, this is intended to be something eaten on-the-go or while relaxing in a piazza, rather than something you'd sit down at the restaurant and eat.

While this might sound like a huge meal, the thin crust Neapolitian pizza is so known for makes it about enough food for one if you're hungry. Pizza a portafoglio can be a bit messy though, as the sauce and cheese tend to sink towards the bottom of the fold, so eat carefully and ask for extra napkins.

You may be thinking a whole pizza folded in half and deep fried couldn't possibly be an approachable street food, but you'd be wrong. Pizza fritte is just that and it's the perfect meal on-the-go or shared with a friend for a snack.

The ultra-thin crust keeps things light while the provola cheese adds a surprising and satisfying smoked flavor. The sauce prevents everything from being too dry without leaking everywhere. You can get this with or without meat and other ingredients like olives, ricotta, and capers. If you're sharing and ask nicely, the chef will cut it in half for you and wrap each side in some paper to keep your fingers from getting greasy.