La Parigina Napoletana

Name: La Parigina Napoletana
Cuisine: Campanian
Ingredients: 300 g flour; ~180 ml water; 5 g fresh yeast; 1 tsp sugar; 5 g salt; Extra-virgin olive oil; 400 g tomato; 150 g cooked ham; 200 g caciocavallo or provola; 1 sheet puff pastry; 1 egg

Naples' double-crust street-food legend — a soft pizza base, a filling of tomato, cooked ham and caciocavallo, and a lid of crisp golden puff pastry.

A square of parigina napoletana cut open to show the layers of ham and melted cheese between pizza dough and puff pastry

First, the name — because everyone gets it wrong, myself included for years. Parigina sounds like "Parisian," and the story everyone tells is that it came from France, the puff-pastry lid a French flourish. It did not. The most likely origin is a dialect deformation of p'a reggina — "for the queen" — created in honour of the refined palate of Maria Carolina d'Austria, the Bourbon queen of Naples. Nothing to do with Paris at all.

What it actually is: the Neapolitan answer to the savoury ham-and-cheese pastry. If you have ever had a croissant salato stuffed with ham in an American café, the parigina is its older, prouder Campanian cousin — but built like a small architecture. A soft pizza-dough base on the bottom, a layer of tomato, cooked ham (prosciutto cotto) and caciocavallo or provola in the middle, and a sheet of buttery puff pastry laid over the top, brushed with egg and baked until it shatters. It belongs to the rosticceria — the fried-and-baked counter food of Naples — and it appears at every party, every buffet, cut into squares and eaten warm or at room temperature.

Not from Paris The puff-pastry top is the only thing that looks French. The name is p'a reggina — "for the queen" — softened by dialect into parigina. A Bourbon-court dish that became street food, like so much of the Neapolitan repertoire.

La Parigina Napoletana — step by step infographic, Mediterranean Notes

Tap to enlarge — La parigina napoletana: i tre strati, gli ingredienti, il metodo

Recipe — La Parigina Napoletana

Makes one tray · about 1 hour 30 (most of it rising and baking)

300 g flour type 00, for the pizza base
~180 ml water lukewarm
5 g fresh yeast
1 tsp sugar
5 g salt
Extra-virgin olive oil
400 g tomato passata or peeled, lightly cooked
150 g cooked ham prosciutto cotto, sliced
200 g caciocavallo or provola grated or thinly sliced
1 sheet puff pastry pasta sfoglia
1 egg beaten, for the glaze

Make the dough. Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the water, mix into the flour with the salt and a little oil, and knead to a smooth, soft dough. Cover and let it rise until doubled, about an hour.

Stretch the base into an oiled baking tray, pressing it out to the edges. Let it relax a few minutes.

Spread the cooked tomato over the base, leaving a small border. Season lightly.

Add the filling — the ham and the caciocavallo or provola, spread evenly across the tomato.

Cover with the sheet of puff pastry, laying it over the top and sealing it to the dough around the edges.

Press the edges together well so the filling stays inside as it bakes.

Glaze and dock. Brush the top with the beaten egg, then prick it all over with a fork so steam escapes and the pastry stays flat and crisp.

Bake at about 200°C for 30–35 minutes, until the top is deep golden and crisp.

Rest and cut into squares. Best warm or at room temperature.

Variations are mostly about the cured meat and the cheese: salami instead of cooked ham, smoked provola for a stronger pull, a little black pepper through the tomato. The bones stay the same — soft below, crisp above, molten in the middle.

Eat it the way Naples does: standing up, from a paper napkin, ideally still warm from the rosticceria counter.

Sotto morbida, sopra croccante, dentro filante — la parigina.