Like a driver who turns on his favourite radio station, when I go out with my family I too try to find the right restaurant in which I can enjoy something truly unique and of the highest quality. With the following owners, all dear friends of mine, I share the same passionate research of true - too often forgotten - flavours.
Pizzeria Attilio (via Pignasecca 17, +39.081.5520479)
For around 40 years, Attilio has continued the long family tradition. Located in Pignasecca, a popular neighbourhood, his pizzeria has, among its specialties, a Pointed pizza giardiniera with the points filled with ricotta and mixed grilled season’s vegetables (not just placed on the pizza when it is pulled out of the oven). Don’t overlook the simple and very succulent Pizza with ricotta, golden onions from Campania and pepper. It has an incredible aroma.
Pescheria Azzurra (via Pignasecca 59, +39.081.5528567)
Still in Pignasecca, the beating heart of Naples, there’s this fantastic fishmonger. It has kept up with times, renovating its look. Here the fish is truly still in the sea only 24 hours before, and it’s not an easy task, trust me. You can find all sorts of catch: lobsters, prawns, crabs, crayfish, salmon, tuna, swordfish, scampi, oysters...
Osteria Abraxas
Located on the hill overlooking lake D'Averno on one side and lake Fusaro on the other, in the area of the Campi Flegrei, it offers local (yet not marine) cuisine that uses in an almost didactic way what’s in season. They offer some small superlative tastings:
Cabbage with sausages and chestnuts, Soft crepes with cheese fondue and walnut cream... Even pasta courses are rich, flavourful and well presented, for instance
Spaghetti with mussels and Campi Flegrei grass peas. The same goes for the main meat course:
Roasted rolled wild chicken. Even cakes are homemade, in fact, they are family made, with great passion, by
Nando’s aunts.
Osteria Abraxas' dining room
Here the production of pralines, Easter eggs, chocolate in various flavours and bon bons follows a unique leitmotiv, that of quality. This is thanks to the use of the best raw materials and of very accurate processing techniques. The latter are the result of a totally artisanal tradition. The mastery of
Luciano allows
unique pairings to be made. There are over 60 types of pralines: from chocolate to pepper, from rosemary to liqueur, from liquorish to dried fruits...
Pub Babette
In Fuorigrotta, a simple and fun setting, where you can buy all sorts of spirits. People come here to leaf through the huge beer list, with products from all over the world. The menu includes
Babette’s snacks made with palm-heart, caciocavallo and salamini, spicy rice crackers and of course French fries. The house specialties are
Crostoni filled with venison prosciutto from the Black Forest, boar salami or prosciutto. There are also spectacular dishes with smoked swordfish, mozzarella di bufala… And hundreds of rums, grappas, whiskeys and spirits.
1. to be continued
