Sfogliatelle, meaning “thin layer” or “thin leaf,” are heavenly, shell-shaped pastries from the Campania region of southern Italy.The story of these pastries can be traced back to the early 17th century in Conca dei Marini, a town in Salerno within Campania.A nun at the Santa Rosa monastery crafted a rustic, simple, layered pastry dough, filling it with a mixture of semolina cooked with milk, ricotta cheese, dried fruit, and sugar.

In the late 18th century, pastry chef Pasquale Pintauro acquired the recipe and opened a pastry shop in Naples that became famous for its sfogliatelle.His skill and dedication elevated the pastry from a regional delight to a beloved Neapolitan classic, celebrated across Italy and beyond.In Naples, you’ll find two enchanting variations of sfogliatelle.

First, there are the dome-shaped sfogliatelle frolla, with a semolina-ricotta filling encased in a shortcrust pastry called pasta frolla.Then there are sfogliatelle ricce—“ricce” meaning curly—famed for staggered layers of paper-thin pastry that crackles into a million tiny flakes with one bite, revealing the creamy filling nestled inside.The secret to those glorious layers that Neapolitans insist on lies in slathering the dough with lard (strutto) and stretching it until it’s sheer.

Inside, the filling pays homage to

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