Neapolitan fried

Neapolitan fried is a particular recipe prepared with offal cooked in tomato and chilli sauce. Here is the recipe.

Don't let the name mislead you: Neapolitan fried is not chopped celery, carrot and onion used to prepare tomato sauce. It is rather a fried pork prepared with the so-called coratella , i.e. all the less noble parts of the animal. Also known as strong Campanian soup, it has very ancient origins.

Then, as often happens, sautéed meat became ennobled and today only the best butchers in the city keep all the secrets for preparing sautéed soup to perfection. The perfect recipe therefore exists, but everyone has their own. We will reveal how to prepare it by following the traditional recipe as much as possible and therefore using spleen, heart, lung, trachea and liver as well as tomato paste and bay leaves. In truth , strong pepper preserves would be needed, but as it is difficult to find and very spicy, we replace it with tomato paste.

How to prepare the Neapolitan fried recipe

1. First, cut the offal into small pieces and rinse them well under running water.
2. In a pan, melt the lard with the oil and brown the meat for a few moments before adding the red wine (optional step).
3. When you no longer smell alcohol rising from the pan, add the tomato paste, bay leaf and chilli pepper.
4. Cook for at least 2 hours on low heat and add salt about halfway through cooking.
5. Serve this tasty dish alone or prepare the Neapolitan sauté with spaghetti to create an extremely tasty first course.

If you can find strong pepper preserves, eliminate the chilli pepper and tomato paste and replace it with approximately 150-200 g of preserves .

And here is a video recipe of the strong soup, which uses the spicy pepper compote as per tradition:

If you are looking for other quick and easy recipes typical of Neapolitan cuisine then don't miss the legendary Neapolitan ragù .

storage

The Neapolitan sofrito can be kept in the refrigerator for 2-3 days . We recommend consuming it after heating it.

Origins of the Neapolitan fried soup

The recipe dates back to the 18th century , but its origin could be even more remote. This dish has roots in the era in which the offal of noble animals was highly appreciated among aristocrats, while that of pork was considered less noble. Thus was born 'o suffritt, sold on street corners by the "zendraglie" (those who prepared the offal), in exchange for a few coins and served on slices of homemade bread. It thus transformed into the "marenna" (snack) of the poor , suitable for those with a robust stomach or for those who carried out tiring jobs, given its substantial consistency.