Naples is world famous for many things, not the least of which is its food. Neapolitan cuisine is much varied with local ingredients that are easily affordable. Some typical Neapolitan dishes and products include: pizza, mozzarella, spaghetti, sfogliatelle, casatiello, tortano, struffoli, pastiera, babā and many others. Neapolitan wines and spirits include Lacryma Christi, red/white wine Vesuvio and limoncello.

Naples is traditionally the home of pizza. The two classic neapolitan pizzas are the "pizza marinara" with a topping of tomato, garlic, oregano, extra virgin olive oil and usually basil and the "pizza Margherita" with a topping of tomato, basil and mozarella. The Margherita is named after Queen Margherita who was served the dish during a visit to the city in 1889. La vera pizza ("true pizza") is made in a wood-burning oven. There is a certification body that issues recognition to pizza places around the world that have been deemed to make true Neapolitan pizza.

Pizzelle fritte, or montanare, are a variation on the pizza theme: tiny and fried pieces of pizza dough, with a nice and well dressed tomato sauce and parmesan cheese on the top. Then, pasticcio di Carnevale: pasta in the oven with tomato sauce, ricotta and mozzarella cheese, tiny meatballs and, sometimes, sausage and boiled eggs. Naples’ frittata di pasta will serve it as a kind of tortilla, blending the leftover pasta with eggs, and finally eating it in slices like a pie.

For Easter, one of Naples's specialties is casatiello: a ringshaped salty cake with salami inside and whole eggs on the top. Also aubergines are very used in Naples cuisine: they can be fried, grilled, and eaten as a vegetable sidedish. Parmigiana di melanzane is a bake of layers of fried slices of eggplant (aubergine, very often coated in egg and flour, or in a light batter), alternated with mozzarella, tomato sauce and parmesan (parmigiano) cheese (a less common version does not include mozzarella). Another very characteristic vegetable in Neapolitan cuisine are the friarielli, a kind of tiny broccoli not boiled, but cooked with olive oil, garlic, salt and chilli.

Naples offers several kinds of unique pastry, the most famous of which is perhaps the babā, followed by choux (Neapolitans write it as scių) and the Pastiera, a cake prepared for Easter. Another typical Neapolitan pastry is the Sfogliatella (riccia or frolla). Naples is also known for its ice cream (in Italian gelato).

Neapolitan food forms the basis for much Italian-American cuisine.