Italian Neapolitan Spaghetti Frittata | Frittata di Pasta Napoletana

Sep 17

11 min read

Frittata di Pasta Napoletana (Italian Neapolitan Spaghetti Frittata)

The Neapolitan frittata di pasta is judged from the outside in. What matters first is the crosta, a continuous golden shell of fried starch and egg that covers the whole cake and cracks slightly under a knife. Inside it the spaghetti must stay moist and separate, bound by egg but never scrambled, with cubes of cheese that have gone soft and a little salame that has released its fat into the mass around it.

It is made with yesterday's spaghetti, and that is not thrift dressed up as tradition. Pasta that has spent a night in the refrigerator has retrograded starch on its surface, so it absorbs far less egg and keeps its individual strands when the cake is turned. Pasta used warm swells, softens and gives a dense wet centre instead.

This is food that travels. It goes to the beach at Posillipo, on a train, on Pasquetta into the countryside, cut into wedges and eaten cold with the fingers. So it has to be structurally sound: a frittata that collapses on the plate has failed at the one job it was invented for.

Yield: 6 servings. Prep: 20 minutes. Cook: 30 minutes. Rest: 20 minutes. Total: about 1 hour 10 minutes, plus overnight for the pasta. Difficulty: intermediate. Course: primo piatto or street food. Region: Campania, Naples and the whole gulf.

The Story

The frittata di maccheroni exists because Naples was the first Italian city where pasta was an everyday food rather than a luxury. The dried pasta industry of Gragnano and Torre Annunziata, working the sea breeze and the mountain air against drying racks in the street, put maccheroni into ordinary households from the early nineteenth century onward. Once a family cooked pasta most days, leftover pasta became a daily question, and this is the answer the city settled on.

The written record follows the practice. Ippolito Cavalcanti, Duca di Buonvicino, published his Cucina teorico pratica in 1837 with an appendix of household recipes in Neapolitan dialect, the moment the cooking of the vicoli entered print. Its dishes run on the same logic as this one: nothing cooked is thrown away, and a second life is planned into the first meal.

What fixed the frittata in Neapolitan affection, though, was the gita fuori porta. Wrapped in paper or a cloth napkin and carried to the beach, the hills or a train, it is one of the few substantial dishes that is genuinely better at room temperature than hot. Families argue about the filling, salame or not, scamorza or provola, a little ham or none, but nobody argues about the crust. Without it the dish is simply reheated pasta.

Ingredients

For the pasta

Cooked spaghetti, cold from the day before, 1 1/4 lb (570 g), about 10 oz (280 g) dry weight
Coarse sea salt for the cooking water, 1 tbsp (15 g) per 4 quarts (3.8 l), if cooking fresh

For the egg mixture

Large eggs, 6
Parmigiano Reggiano, finely grated, 2 oz (55 g)
Pecorino Romano, finely grated, 1 oz (30 g)
Flat leaf parsley, finely chopped, 2 tbsp
Freshly ground black pepper, 1/2 tsp, generous
Fine sea salt, 1/4 tsp (1.5 g) only

For the filling

Salame Napoli, cut into 1/4 inch (6 mm) cubes, 3 oz (85 g)
Scamorza or provola, cut into 1/3 inch (8 mm) cubes, 4 oz (115 g)
Cooked ham in one thick slice, diced, 2 oz (55 g), optional

For frying

Extra virgin olive oil, 4 tbsp (60 ml), or 2 tbsp oil and 1 tbsp (14 g) lard

Preparation

Cook the spaghetti the day before

If you are not working from leftovers, boil the spaghetti in well salted water and stop it a full 2 minutes short of al dente. Drain it, spread it on a wide tray, toss it with a teaspoon of oil so it will not weld together, and refrigerate it uncovered overnight. The surface starch retrogrades as it cools, which is what stops the strands drinking the egg later.

Beat the eggs and the cheese into a thick custard

Break the eggs into a wide bowl and beat them only until the yolks and whites are combined, without working air into them. Stir in both grated cheeses, the parsley and a heavy grinding of black pepper. Add just 1/4 teaspoon of salt and no more: the pecorino, the salame and the cheese cubes carry a great deal of it. Never add milk, cream or flour.

Cut the filling into pieces that stay separate

Cube the salame small, about 1/4 inch, so its fat renders into the cake rather than sitting in pockets. Cut the scamorza larger, about 1/3 inch, so it softens without vanishing. Keep the cheese cold until the last moment: a warm cube smears while you mix and leaves a greasy streak instead of a melting pocket.

Fold the cold pasta through the egg, do not stir it

Loosen the cold spaghetti with your hands so the strands separate, then tip it into the egg mixture with the salame and the cheese. Fold everything over with a spatula, lifting from the bottom, until every strand carries a film of egg. Stop as soon as it looks even. Stirring hard breaks the strands and turns the finished cake into a dense block.

Let the mixture stand for 10 minutes

This is the step almost everyone skips. It lets the egg hydrate the surface of the pasta evenly and the salt dissolve, and it stops the mixture separating into egg at the bottom and dry pasta on top in the pan. Give it one more gentle fold before it is cooked.

Set the cake in a moderate pan

Heat the oil in a 10 inch (25 cm) nonstick or well seasoned iron pan over medium heat until it shimmers but does not smoke. Tip in the whole mixture at once and press it flat with the back of a spatula, tucking the edges in so the cake is slightly domed and even. Lower the heat at once. It needs 12 to 15 minutes on this side.

Build the crust slowly and check the edge

Do not touch it while it cooks. Shake the pan gently after 8 minutes to confirm it is moving in one piece, and lift the edge with a spatula after 12 to look at the colour. You want a deep even gold, not brown patches. If it is colouring in the centre only, the pan is too hot or the burner too small for the diameter.

Turn it with a lid and finish the second side

Slide a flat lid or a plate larger than the pan over the top, hold it down, and invert the whole pan in one decisive movement. Add the last tablespoon of oil to the pan, slide the cake back in uncooked side down, and tuck the edges again. Cook 10 to 12 minutes more. The centre should feel firm and slightly springy when pressed, never liquid.

Plating

Slide the finished frittata onto a wooden board and let it rest for at least 20 minutes before it is cut. It is still setting inside when it leaves the pan, and a cake cut hot will sag and weep at the edge. In Naples it is normally served warm rather than hot, and it is just as correct at room temperature two hours later.

Cut it into six wedges with a long sharp knife, one stroke each time, wiping the blade between cuts. Do not saw. A clean section is part of the point: you should see individual strands of spaghetti running through the wedge, the pockets left by the cheese, and the crust as a dark gold border all the way round.

Serve it on a plain plate with nothing on top. No sauce, no grated cheese, no herbs. The only correct accompaniments are a green salad dressed with vinegar and oil, or friarielli, or nothing at all. If it is going to a beach or a picnic, cool it completely on a rack so no steam is trapped underneath, then wrap it in paper rather than plastic.

Professional Technique

The crust is a dehydration crust, not a sear. Under moderate heat the film of egg and starch against the pan loses its water first, then the remaining sugars and proteins brown together, and the layer that results is thin, continuous and structural. That is why the pan runs at medium low for 12 to 15 minutes a side. High heat colours the outside in three minutes and leaves a raw centre that collapses the moment the cake is cut.

The second point is the state of the pasta. Cooked spaghetti that has been chilled overnight has partly recrystallised its surface starch, a process called retrogradation, and a retrograded surface is far less absorbent than a freshly boiled one. That single difference decides whether the egg coats the strands or is drunk by them, and therefore whether the finished cake is a bound cake of visible spaghetti or a solid pudding.

The third is the ratio and the turn. Six large eggs to 1 1/4 lb of cooked pasta is enough protein to bind the mass without flooding it, and it sets firmly enough that the cake can be inverted whole after the first side. The turn works because the bottom third has already coagulated into a rigid plate: invert too early and it tears, too late and the crust hardens past the point where it will take colour on the second side.

Texture and Moisture Control

Two textures have to coexist, a dry crisp shell and a moist interior, and they fail in opposite directions. The shell is lost to steam, so the cake must never be covered while it cooks and must never be rested on a plate where condensation can gather underneath. The interior is lost to heat, so the burner stays low and the total cooking time stays close to 25 minutes.

Milk, cream and flour are the classic additions and all three are wrong here. Milk loosens the egg and the extra water has to leave somewhere, which it does by steaming the crust from the inside and leaving a pale damp border. Flour makes the interior pasty. The moisture in a correct frittata comes only from the eggs, the cheese cubes and the fat rendered out of the salame.

The cheese is the one deliberate source of free liquid, and its size controls it. Cubes cut too small dissolve and their water disperses through the cake. Cubes at 1/3 inch melt into defined soft pockets and keep the moisture local. Use a firm scamorza or provola rather than fresh mozzarella, which holds far too much water for this dish.

Professional Mise en Place

Everything here happens the day before except the frying, so the only real decision on the day is when to start the pan.

Equipment and tools

Nonstick or well seasoned iron pan, 10 inches (25 cm), with low sloping sides
Flat lid or a plate wider than the pan, for the turn
Wide bowl large enough to fold the pasta without compressing it
Flexible spatula and a long thin knife for cutting
Rack and a wooden board for resting

Prepared ahead

Spaghetti boiled short, oiled, spread on a tray and chilled overnight
Salame and scamorza cubed and kept cold and separate
Cheeses grated and parsley chopped, up to a day ahead
Eggs taken out 30 minutes before mixing so they beat evenly

Service setup

Pan at medium heat and oil shimmering before the mixture goes in
Lid or plate for the turn within arm's reach, not in a cupboard
Timer set for 12 minutes on the first side
Board and rack cleared for the rest period

Chef Tips

Use spaghetti or vermicelli, not a short shape. Long strands lie against each other and interlock, and that woven mass is what holds the cake together when it is turned. Rigatoni or penne give a frittata that breaks into pieces along the gaps between the tubes.

If the spaghetti was dressed with tomato yesterday, use it. A leftover pasta al pomodoro makes an excellent frittata and is closer to what most Neapolitan families actually eat. Reduce the salt in the egg mixture further, because the sauce has already been seasoned, and expect a slightly softer crust.

Match the pan to the quantity. This mixture wants a 10 inch pan, which gives a cake about 1 1/2 inches deep. A wider pan gives a thin dry frittata and a narrower one gives a deep cake whose centre will still be raw when the outside is dark.

If turning the whole cake makes you nervous, finish it under a hot grill for 4 minutes instead. You lose the second crust, which is a real loss, but you keep the dish. Practise the turn with a cold pan and a plate first, and commit to the movement rather than doing it slowly.

Common Mistakes

Using freshly cooked hot pasta. Warm strands absorb the egg, swell and fuse, and the result is a heavy pudding with no visible spaghetti in the cut. Cook it the day before, or at least chill it thoroughly on a tray.

Adding milk or cream to the eggs. The extra water steams the crust from the inside and leaves a pale damp border that never crisps. The binder here is egg and grated cheese, nothing else.

Frying it over high heat. The outside colours in three minutes while the centre stays liquid, and the cake collapses when it is cut. Medium low heat and 12 to 15 minutes a side is what builds a crust that holds.

Salting the egg mixture like a plain omelette. Pecorino, salame and scamorza are all salty and the cake concentrates as it fries. A quarter teaspoon in the eggs is the whole addition.

Covering the pan with a lid while it cooks. Trapped steam softens the crust you have just spent twelve minutes building. The pan stays open from start to finish.

Cutting it straight out of the pan. The interior is still setting, so a hot cake sags, weeps and gives a ragged section. Rest it on a board for at least 20 minutes.

Wine Pairing

Falanghina del Sannio DOC: The Campanian white that belongs on the same table, and it does the simplest job well. Its acidity and green apple bite reach through the fried crust and the egg fat, and it is dry enough to leave nothing sweet behind after a wedge eaten with the fingers. Serve it properly cold, at about 47°F (8°C), which is how it is drunk on the coast.

Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG: Take the brut version, not the extra dry. Carbon dioxide scrubs fat from the palate more effectively than acidity alone, which matters against a dish fried in oil and bound with egg yolk and hard cheese. The pear and white flower aromatics stay in the background and do not compete with the salame.

Lambrusco di Sorbara DOC: A dry sparkling red, pale and high in acid, and the traditional partner of cured pork anywhere in Italy. It handles the salame directly, its bubbles work on the fried surface, and it is the one red that can be served at 54°F (12°C) alongside a dish eaten cold on a beach without seeming out of place.

Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG: The choice for a frittata heavy with salame and scamorza. Nero d'Avola gives it dark fruit and body while Frappato keeps it light and perfumed, and the combination has fruit enough for the cured meat without the tannin that would clash with egg. Serve it slightly cool, around 57°F (14°C).

Greco di Tufo DOCG: For a frittata served warm at the table rather than cold in a napkin. Greco is broad and stony with a long saline finish, and it has the weight to stand next to a dense cake of pasta and cheese where a lighter white would disappear.

Storage & Reheating

The frittata keeps for 3 days in the refrigerator, wrapped loosely in paper inside an airtight container rather than pressed against plastic film, which softens the crust overnight. Cool it completely on a rack before it is wrapped, because steam trapped under a warm cake will undo the whole crust in an hour.

Reheat it in a dry pan over low heat, 4 minutes a side, which rebuilds some of the crust. An oven at 350°F (175°C) for 8 minutes works almost as well. Never use a microwave: it steams the cake from the inside and turns the egg rubbery. Or take it out an hour ahead and eat it at room temperature, which is how most of Naples eats it.

It freezes well in wedges for up to 2 months, wrapped individually. Thaw them overnight in the refrigerator and then refresh them in a dry pan or a hot oven. Do not thaw a whole frittata at room temperature, since the outside comes to temperature long before the centre.

Nutrition

Per serving, based on 6 servings:

Calories: 520 kcal
Total Fat: 27 g
Saturated Fat: 10 g
Trans Fat: 0.2 g
Unsaturated Fat: 16 g
Cholesterol: 230 mg
Sodium: 880 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 42 g
Fiber: 2 g
Total Sugars: 2 g
Added Sugars: 0 g
Protein: 26 g
Lactose: 0.6 g
Principal micronutrients: calcium, phosphorus, selenium, vitamin B12, vitamin A, riboflavin