Regional Food and Wine
The flavour of Naples dominates the whole of Campania. Nowhere else in Italy is street food so much part of the culture. Most importantly, perhaps, Naples is the true home of the pizza , rapidly baked in searingly hot wood-fired ovens and running with olive oil. There's no such thing as "Pizza Napoletana" here; in Naples, the crucial one is the marinara - not, as you might think, anything to do with seafood, but the basic Neapolitan pizza, topped with just tomato, garlic and a leaf or two of basil, no cheese. Street food also comprises fried pizzas topped with a smear of tomato and a square of mozzarella, and calzone , a stuffed fried pizza with ham and cheese or vegetables. Friggiotore sell other fried food: heavenly krocche (potato croquettes), arancini (rice balls) and fiorilli (courgette flowers in batter). Naples is also the home of pasta and tomato sauce, made with fresh tomatoes and basil, and laced with garlic; it's a curious aspect of Neapolitan sauces that garlic, onion and parmesan are rarely combined. Aubergines and courgettes turn up endlessly in pasta sauces , as does the tomato- mozzarella pairing (the regions to the north and east of Naples are both big mozzarella-producing regions), the latter particularly good with gnocchi . Seafood is excellent all along the coast: clams combine with garlic and oil for superb spaghetti alle vongole ; mussels are prepared as zuppa di cozze (with hot pepper sauce); fresh squid and octopus are ubiquitous. Pastries are good, too. Absolutely not to be missed is the sfogliatella , a flaky triangular pastry case stuffed with ricotta and candied peel, and the Easter cake, pastiera , made with ricotta and wheat berries. Further to the south, the marshy plains of the Cilento produce fabulous strawberries, artichokes and mozzarella cheese - much of the mozzarella that comes from here is made from pure buffalo milk, unmixed with cow's milk. The volcanic slopes of Vesuvius are among the most ancient wine-producing areas in Italy: Ischia nowadays produces good white wine, notably Biancolella, while Capri's is more everyday. Lacryma Christi, from the slopes of Mount Vesuvius and available in red and white varieties, can be reasonable. The best choices for a Campanian white, however, are Greco di Tufo and Fiano di Avellino; the red to go for is Taurasi, a rich wine made from the aglianico grape that can command high prices.
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