Typical Neapolitan Pastries: Capuccino e cornetto, per favore

We have seen that coffee is practically sacred in this country but, what else?
Well, when you drink coffee, you can complement it with pastries, like the cornetto, sfogliatella, babà… Here, we will see some of the most typical pastries in this city.

- Cornetto (literally, “little horn”), Cornetti (plural)
When you see a cornetto, you think it is the typical croissant. We can see that cornetti are “empty” and always filled with different creams, like apricot jam, chocolate, blueberry jam, etc
Normally, at breakfast, we order coffee/capuccino and cornetto.
There are also shops that only make cornetti, called Cornetteria.

(The best cornetto I tried was a cornetto filled with kinder chocolate)

- Babà/babbà (from the slavic word Badka, which means old woman or grandmother)
The babà was born as a dessert in eastern Europe, then it was brought to Naples by french cooks and became famous in the city. It is a simple cake soaked in alcohol/liquor (normally rum) and sometimes filled with cream. It has a mushroom form and it can be made with different sizes.

(Personally, I don’t like babà because it has a strong alcohol flavour, but people usually like it)

- Sfogliatella, sfogliatelle (it could be translated as thin layer)
The Neapolitan sfogliatella normally has a seashell form. It could be compared with the mille-feuille and the lobster tail pastry, but it is made different because the ingredients and the way it is cooked have variations, with wine, cheese and oil.
There are four different types of sfogliatella:

1.- Sfogliatella Riccia: the typical sfogliatella, with seashell form, shortcrust pastry and filled with semolina cream.
2.- Sfogliatella frolla: with the same fillings, but softer, with ricotta cheese.
3.- Sfogliatella Abruzzese: Softer, delicate and filled with local grape jam.
4.- Sfogliatella Pugliese: Different from the Neapolitan recipe, with almonds, apple jam, fondant and wine.

“Napule tre cose tene e belle… o’mare, o’Vesuvio e’e sfugliatelle!”

- Pastiera, pastieri
Usually eaten at Easter, the pastiera has a typical cherry pie form, but the different is that it is made with ricotta cheese and orange flower water. Sometimes it is decorated with fruits.

- Cannolo, Cannoli (little tube)
(!) First, this is not neapolitan, it is a Sicilian pastry; and second, I add this pastry because it is common see it in Naples.
So, cannoli are small tubes made with fried pastry dough and, filled with cream or ricotta. It has different sizes but normally they are small.

- Fiocco/fiocchi di Neve (Snowflake)
This pastry does not enter in the neapolitan pastry tradition, but I must share this wonderful dessert because it is famous in Naples and you can only find them in Pasticceria Poppella. (it is like the tiramisu in Pompi bakery in Rome (the most delicious tiramisu, very famous).
The fiocco di neve is a small soft ball filled with different creams: strawberry, milk, pistachio and chocolate. They are simple, with soft texture, natural and very tasty.

(I think my favourite one is the strawberry fiocco because it tastes like a light strawberry milkshake)


There are a lot of more pastries, but you will always find these ones.

-sorry for my English-