Trattoria Bella Napoli, loosely translated to “Beautiful Naples Eatery”, opened on Main Street in December 2024. It’s the product of Naples native Cesare Di Iorio, formerly the pizza chef at Osteria 500, and his business partner Maria Filomena Perrini. The restaurant, specializing in authentic Neapolitan cuisine, is a family affair—Cesare’s wife, Diana Mattera, serves as host. The staff, which includes Chef Roberto Spinozzi, are all Italian. Everything that Bella Napoli serves—from Di Iorio’s Neapolitan pizzas, which won second place at the 2024 International Pizza Challenge to fresh, home-made pasta dishes and pastries—harkens back to a rich tradition of Neapolitan cuisine.
One such dish is the Bella Napoli gnocchi, one of the restaurant’s most popular entrees. The dish is served in a “pizza basket”—tender potato gnocchis, made in-house by Chef Spinnozi, are submerged in a bath of zucchini pesto, stracciatella cheese, fried speck and parmigiana, supported by a basket made from pizza dough. “Where I come from in Naples, we have what is called ‘wallet pizza’,” says Di Iorio. “You can walk on the street, fold up the pizza and eat it with one hand. That’s where we got the idea to serve the gnocchi in the pizza basket.”
Although Trattoria Bella Napoli’s menu displays a wide range of the Neopolitan cuisine that Di Iorio holds so closely to his heart, the undisputed star of the show is the pizza. The dough, made with imported OO flour, is allowed to ferment for anywhere from 24-48 hours before being slid into a ripping hot 900 degree oven. The total cooking time? A whopping 90 seconds. “Our pizza is soft, not crispy like American pizza,” says Di Iorio of the cooking technique. “American pizza is a different style—it’s cooked at a lower temperature for a longer time—while we do have some crunch on the crust, it’s a softer pizza overall.”…