Pizzelle,  fried small (ish) pizzas,  are iconic and beloved  Neapolitan street food whose strong hold on Italian popular culture has been assured for ever  by being the protagonists of a legendary sketch in the movie L’oro di Napoli (The gold of Naples, 195 )  where a young and voluptuous Sophia Loren plays a flirtatious pizzaiola,  a pizza maker, whose pizzelle as well as her prosperous bosom are legendary in the neighbourhood. As she fries the pizzelle she shouts: “…Scialate…scialate…Mangiate oggi e pagate fra otto giorni…” (Enjoy…enjoy…eat now and pay in 8 days’ time…”).

They are also firmly rooted in local home cooking though. As a kid, I used to spend a couple of weeks every summer in Salerno, not far from Naples and I clearly remember pizzelle being prepared by relatives: what a feast, for a little Milanese kid, whose mother was a reluctant cook and who would never embark in any deep frying. My aunt’s pizzelle were simply dressed with a a little tomato sauce and a sprinkle of parmesan: stuck one on top of the other, they would be kept warm in the oven, ready to be devoured with gusto after an exhausting morning at the beach -they are amongst my strongest food memories.  Continue reading →