FXcuisine

Not exactly like a calzone, which is a single disc of dough folded in half and baked in the oven. Here we have to disc of dough, which make a flat thick disc which is deep-fried. But similar in other respects, you are right!

Thanks for your interest in my article! It was nominated as 'Health Food of the Day' and 'Heart Attack Waiting to Happen' by fellow bloggers yesterday. But this is a traditional working class dish in Napoli. You definitely need an exhausting occupation to be able to afford the calorie explosion. The guy invited me into his shop and let me watch him prepare the pizza fritta, then sat me at his marble work bench to eat, while making conversation (I speak Italian quite well) with him and a pal who came for pizza. A very nice moment indeed!

When roasting large pieces of meat or poultry, the meat can turn dry before it is cooked through. And if we boil it instead, we miss the delicious browned crust. There are some cooking methods that try to achieve both the juicy interior and the intensely flavored crust. One is tandoor roasting, whereby the meat is tenderized by a long marination in acids/enzymes before it is quickly roasted at very high temperature. But the marination tends to destroy the meat's texture and turn it into a chewy mess. Some recipes first sauté, then braisé the meat, but this destroys the crispy crust. I have recently tested a traditional Indian recipe that calls for first simmering a leg of lamb for 30 minutes, then marinating it and finally to roast it at 600°F+ in my tandoor. You can see that recipe in pictures on my blog. Do you know of other recipes where the meat is boiled before being roasted? I was thinking of trying with a corn-fed chicken first simmered, then tandoor-roasted to get a more juicy interior. Thank you for your help!

I have actually installed a natural-gas tandoor in my appartment and been using it for about a year now. Great thing, but monstrous. You have to put your hands in the 600°F monster's mouth. I just cooked a whole leg of lamb today as well as beautiful Afghan snowshoe naans. There are many tandoors you can buy, here is a little breakdown: 1. Real Tandoor - made with clay and horsehair and charcoal fired. Not really an option in a Western home but you could have one in the garden. Really cheap in India. 2. Restaurant Tandoors - they all come in big stainless steel boxes on wheels. There are many fine models out there, charcoal-, electric- and gas-fired. But these are way too big for a home. The tandoors on Ebay and Amazon are like these. 3. Garden Tandoors - there is a British company who manufacture a small relatively convincing charcoal-fired tandoor but exclusively for outdoor use. I don't think it's big enough for naans though. 4. Home Tandoors - these are Western standards home appliances for people like you and me, namely individuals who would want a chance to cook real tandoor dishes in their homes but can't wait 3 hours for a charcoal fire to heat through and want the thing inside. A year ago, the only company I found making such products was The Clay Oven Company Ltd in London. Lovely people. The tandoor works great and has a European certification that convinced even the rather doubtful people from the gas company here in Switzerland. There are two very slight disadvantages. First it's made in cement, not clay, so it doesn't really qualify as a traditional tandoor. But most of the tandoors I've seen in Indian restaurants in the West use a similar material. And it doesn't use charcoal, but that's what I wanted. Probably with charcoal you get a better taste. I'm sure if you look now you'll find other company making tandoors that would work for you. They are not the world's most expensive appliances but weigh a good 100 kg. That was fun to bring up the stairs. One more word - the tandoor is a formidable beast to tame. You'll need a powerful source of fresh air right at the bottom and a strong, heat resistant ventilation system. I had to make several changes to accommodate this. The huge gas burner burns so much oxygen you get dizzy after 30 minutes, and it's not carbon monoxyde but really lack of oxygen. I don't mean to discourage you but just help the planning. I hope it helps! You can see me using the tandoor in my Chicken Tandoori article or when I managed to reproduce a delicious warm tandoor-roasted vegetable salad from London restaurant Tamarind.

Thank you - I certainly will check those two places seeing how well I fared based on your last tip. Thanks again!

Downtown Napoli can be rather scary. When I was there there hills or rubbish on every street corner, some burning with an acrid smoke. The hills may have turned to mountains by now. Muggings are very common, even for the locals. So you should not feel bad about having had a hard time coping with the center. If your Italian is good it is of course better. I recommend stripping absolutely anything snatchable from your person. No purse, no bag, no camera, no wallet. I put a few banknotes directly in my pocket and left my passport at the hotel. I took a small compact camera and prepared a thread to hang it around my neck below the shirt. All of this makes you an unattractive target for thieves, who go for low-hanging fruits. And then you can enjoy the wonderful people of Napoli in a more carefree spirit. My two cents!

Thanks so much for your advice, I had found your message above while researching fine pizzeria for my first trip to Napoli and visited #2 on your list - Pizzaiolo del Presidente. Great pizza indeed! Here was my margherita with an egg: More pictures of Il Pizzaiolo del Presidente ...

I love Neapolitan street food and have written two articles about it only to discover this thread later! Here is a shot of the pizzaiolo at Pizzaiolo del Presidente preparing my pizza margherita in two minutes flat plus 30 seconds, not one more, in the oven. I can't believe how fast the pizza bubbled and browned, but again, you won't believe how hot their oven is. Just as popular with the locals is deep fried pizza, or pizza fritta. A serious calorie bomb. Antonio, the owner of a hole-in-the-wall pizza fritta joint just off via Toledo invited me inside his shop to watch and learn how they make the pizza fritta. Then I ate it sitting at hte large marble table where he kneads his dough at nights. All of this plus half an hour of lively conversation for €3.50, I love this city! I have more pictures and details on my blog.