Pizza fritta is pizza dough folded around a filling, sealed and deep-fried. Modernist Pizza calls it a true Neapolitan specialty: in Naples, a pizza turnover that is deep-fried rather than baked like a calzone becomes pizza fritta, and Neapolitans count it as pizza. Outside Campania it is rare.
At home it needs no pizza oven at all, only a heavy pot, a thermometer and some care with hot oil. Its open-faced cousin, fried and then finished in the oven, is the montanara.
A short history
Fried pizza is old in Naples. Modernist Pizza traces it to the 18th and 19th centuries, when much of the city ate from street vendors and a second pizza economy ran alongside the pizzerias: people, mostly women, made and sold pizza in front of their homes for extra money. With no ovens, they fried it in big vats of oil heated over coal. Sometimes it was plain fried dough; sometimes toppings went onto a round of raw dough, under a second piece of dough, and the whole package went into the oil.
Vittorio De Sica’s 1954 film L’Oro di Napoli shows that trade: Sophia Loren plays one of these pizza sellers, and Modernist Pizza notes the film used Pizzeria Starita as a location. When the book’s authors toured Naples, they found pizza fritta on many menus.
The dough
Scatti di Gusto’s pizza fritta lesson, which follows Giuseppe Pignalosa of the pizzeria Le Parùle in Ercolano, says the dough is no different in substance from ordinary pizza dough. This recipe’s dough is an editorial starting point, not Uditi’s published dough or a tested frying formula: the Pizza Planner’s Neapolitan-style dough as it plans it for an outdoor pizza oven, 60% water, 3% salt and 0.3% instant yeast, rested overnight in the fridge. It’s the firmer of the Planner’s two Neapolitan-style doughs; its 70% home-oven dough is made wetter for a 6- to 10-minute bake, which a fried pizza doesn’t need.
| Ingredient | Grams | Baker’s % |
|---|---|---|
| Flour (00 or bread flour) | 919 | 100% |
| Water | 551 | 60% |
| Fine sea salt | 27.6 | 3% |
| Instant yeast | 2.8 | 0.3% |
| Dough | 1,500 |
That makes six balls of 250 g, the Planner’s portion for a 12-inch Neapolitan-style pizza. The filling and frying method are adapted from Daniele Uditi’s recipe; the dough is the Planner’s formula, not his. Uditi’s own dough is a same-day one: wetter at 65% water and saltier at 3.5% (calculated from his listed ingredients), made with fresh yeast and left to double for about 2 hours as balls. It’s another reasonable route, but the steps and timings on this page are written for the Planner dough.
- Mix the dough, rest it briefly, and knead or fold until it is cohesive and smooth.
- First rise: keep it covered in a lightly oiled container at room temperature for about 2 hours (the Planner allows 1½ to 3).
- Divide into six 250 g pieces and shape them into balls without tearing the surface.
- Refrigerate the covered balls for about a day.
- Warm them, covered, for 1½ to 3 hours before shaping, until they are soft, airy and stretch without springing back.
The Planner doesn’t plan the filling or the frying, so follow the timings below for those.
The filling
The quantities are from the pizza chef Daniele Uditi’s recipe for GialloZafferano, for six pizze fritte:
| Ingredient | For 6 | About per pizza |
|---|---|---|
| Cow’s milk ricotta | 250 g | 42 g |
| Whole milk (mixed into the ricotta) | 30 g | 5 g |
| Cicoli (pork cracklings), cubed | 350 g | 58 g |
| Smoked scamorza, in strips | 350 g | 58 g |
| Pecorino, grated | 60 g | 10 g |
| Canned whole peeled tomatoes, hand-crushed | 400 g | 67 g |
| Salt and black pepper | to taste |
The per-pizza amounts are calculated and rounded. Season the ricotta with salt and pepper and the crushed tomatoes with a pinch of salt.
Cicoli are fried pork fat, which GialloZafferano calls an essential ingredient in many traditional Neapolitan recipes. If you can’t find them, Uditi suggests cubes of mortadella or Neapolitan salami instead. Salami is in the classic at La Masardona too: Modernist Pizza describes it as salami with three cheeses, ricotta, scamorza and mozzarella.
Frying safely
Hot oil can burn you and start a fire. The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service and the National Fire Protection Association give the essentials:
- Use a deep, heavy pot. Uditi’s recipe uses about 3 liters of oil in a large pot. FSIS advises against cast iron for frying, as it breaks oil down faster.
- Use a thermometer and heat the oil slowly to the temperature you need, here 340 to 350°F (170 to 177°C). If you see wisps of smoke or the oil smells, turn off the burner: the oil is too hot.
- Never leave hot oil unattended, and stay in the kitchen while you fry.
- Keep water away from the oil. A drop of water in hot oil turns instantly to steam and spatters. Dry your hands and tools, and lower each pizza in gently so the oil doesn’t splash.
- Keep a metal lid next to the pot. If the oil catches fire, slide the lid over it, turn off the burner and leave it covered until it is completely cool. Never throw water on a grease fire. If it doesn’t go out, get everyone out and call 911 from outside.
Which oil: Uditi uses peanut oil. FSIS lists peanut, canola, corn, grapeseed, safflower, sunflower, vegetable and olive oil as suitable for deep frying because of their high smoke points.
Make it
Makes six pizze fritte. Active time about an hour. Elapsed time about 29 hours, most of it with the dough in the fridge. Frying 6 to 8 minutes each, one at a time.
- Prepare the filling while the dough warms up: mix the ricotta with the milk, salt and pepper; crush the tomatoes by hand with a pinch of salt; cut the scamorza into strips and the cicoli into cubes.
- Heat the oil slowly in a large, heavy pot to 340 to 350°F (170 to 177°C). Scatti di Gusto’s lesson gives 170 to 180°C (338 to 356°F) and says to be generous with the oil.
- Shape. Dust the counter with semolina and press a dough ball out with your fingertips to about 12 inches.
- Fill. Put a spoonful of ricotta in the middle, then a handful of cicoli, some scamorza, a sprinkle of pecorino, a generous grind of pepper and a spoonful of tomato.
- Seal. Fold the dough over into a half-moon and press the edges together with your fingers. Then tap all around the edge with the side of your hand to seal it tight and trim off the excess dough, as Pignalosa does. A seal that isn’t airtight lets oil in and makes the pizza heavy.
- Fry 6 to 8 minutes. Lower the pizza gently into the oil, away from you. Spoon hot oil over the top as it fries, then turn it to finish, until it is golden brown all over. Pizzaioli baste the exposed side rather than just leaving it, so it cooks evenly.
- Drain and eat. Lift it out, let the oil drip back into the pot, and drain it on paper. Uditi says to eat it as soon as it’s ready. Check the thermometer and let the oil come back to temperature before the next one.
Where to try it in Naples
In their research for the 2021 book, Modernist Pizza’s authors rated the pizza fritta at La Masardona, outside the tourist areas near the port and the train station, the best they had: light and crisp rather than greasy. The book says it has made pizza fritta since 1945, when Vincenzo Piccirillo’s grandmother, nicknamed the Masardona, started it, describes it as family run, and records a line forming from 8 a.m. for breakfast pizza fritta when they visited. Its ordering site lists the address as Via Giulio Cesare Capaccio 27, Naples. On Via dei Tribunali, the Sorbillo family runs a pizza fritta shop, Antica Pizza Fritta da Zia Esterina Sorbillo, next door to Gino Sorbillo’s pizzeria. The book’s observations date from its research, so check current opening hours before you go.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What's the difference between pizza fritta and a calzone?
- How they're cooked. Both are pizza dough folded over a filling and sealed. A calzone is baked in the oven; Modernist Pizza notes that in Naples, the same turnover deep-fried instead is called pizza fritta.
- What's the difference between pizza fritta and montanara?
- Pizza fritta is folded around its filling and cooked entirely in the oil. A montanara is fried open, topped afterward with tomato sauce and cheese, and finished briefly in a hot oven.
- What can I use instead of cicoli?
- Daniele Uditi suggests cubes of mortadella or Neapolitan salami. Salami also appears in La Masardona's classic, which Modernist Pizza describes as salami with ricotta, scamorza and mozzarella.
- What temperature should the oil be?
- Uditi's recipe for GialloZafferano heats peanut oil to 340 to 350°F, and Scatti di Gusto's pizza fritta lesson gives 170 to 180°C (338 to 356°F). Use a thermometer, heat the oil slowly, and turn off the burner if it starts to smoke.
- Why did my pizza fritta come out heavy and oily?
- Check the seal first. Scatti di Gusto's lesson says the closure must be airtight: tap all around the edge with the side of your hand and trim the excess dough, so oil can't get inside and weigh it down. Then check the oil temperature with a thermometer before each one.
- When was pizza fritta invented?
- No one knows exactly. Modernist Pizza describes a centuries-long history in Naples, with fried pizza sold in the 18th and 19th centuries by people, mostly women, who had no ovens and fried it in vats of oil in front of their homes. The 1954 film L'Oro di Napoli shows the trade, with Sophia Loren as a pizza seller.
Sources
- Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya, Modernist Pizza (2021), volume 1, pages 38 (the origin of pizza fritta and L’Oro di Napoli), 123–124 (pizza fritta, calzone and montanara), 155, 160 (La Masardona), 165 (Sorbillo and Antica Pizza Fritta da Zia Esterina Sorbillo) and 166 (Pizzeria Starita as the film’s location).
- GialloZafferano, “Fried pizza with ricotta and cicoli” (recipe by Daniele Uditi): filling quantities, dough, shaping, frying temperature and time, substitutes. Checked October 14, 2026.
- La Masardona: ordering page (address). Checked October 14, 2026.
- Scatti di Gusto, “Lezioni di Pizza. La ricetta della fritta napoletana” (March 21, 2020, updated February 23, 2026), with Giuseppe Pignalosa of Le Parùle, Ercolano: the dough, sealing, oil temperature and basting. Checked October 14, 2026.
- USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, “Deep Fat Frying and Food Safety” (last updated August 9, 2024): pots, water and grease fires, attending the fryer, oils. Checked October 14, 2026.
- National Fire Protection Association, “Cooking safety”: staying in the kitchen, heating oil, smoke, and smothering a grease fire. Checked October 14, 2026.
- Pizza Planner (jayarr.pizza): the Neapolitan-style outdoor-oven dough and schedule. The dough quantities are the Planner’s for six 250 g balls; the per-pizza filling amounts and Uditi’s dough percentages are calculated.