Neapolitan Pizza & Tiramisu Cooking Class Naples

The cooking school in central Naples

The class takes place in a cooking school in central Naples, set up with long work stations, ingredients laid out for each guest and a traditional pizza oven at the heart of the room. Aprons and chef's hats are waiting when you arrive, and the chef opens the session with a local Neapolitan starter while explaining how the afternoon or evening will unfold. Groups are mixed, so you cook beside travellers from many countries, which keeps the atmosphere relaxed and sociable.

Four start times are offered: 10:00, 13:30, 17:00 and 20:00, so the class can be a late breakfast-to-lunch, a long lunch or a full dinner. Allow about 3 hours from welcome to certificate. The exact address is in your booking confirmation, and the school is easy to reach on foot, by metro or by taxi from most hotels in the centre. Arrive ten minutes early so you can settle in before the dough work begins.

Neapolitan pizza: dough, San Marzano sauce and the oven

Naples is where pizza as the world knows it was born, and the art of the Neapolitan pizzaiuolo is inscribed on the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. A true Neapolitan pizza uses only flour, water, salt and yeast for the dough, which is stretched by hand, never with a rolling pin, so the edge puffs up into the soft, airy rim locals call the cornicione. The sauce is made from San Marzano tomatoes, grown in the volcanic soil of the Sarno valley at the foot of Vesuvius.

In this Naples cooking class you work through every stage: mixing and kneading, shaping the dough into a disc, spreading the sauce and adding fresh mozzarella and basil. The highlight is the moment you take the long wooden peel, lift your pizza and slide it into the hot oven like a local pizzaiolo, then watch the crust rise and blister in about a minute and a half.

Tiramisu, Italy's favourite spoon dessert

Tiramisu means pick me up in Italian, a nod to the strong coffee that soaks its layers. The dessert is built from savoiardi sponge fingers dipped in espresso and a rich cream of mascarpone, eggs and sugar, finished with a dusting of bitter cocoa. Although it comes from the north of Italy, it is now served in almost every trattoria in Naples, a city that takes its coffee very seriously.

While your pizza dough rests, the chef shows you how to whip the cream to the right texture, how long to dip the biscuits so they stay soft but not soggy, and how to build neat layers in your own cup. You add the final cocoa touch yourself, and the tiramisu chills while you bake the pizza, so it is ready for dessert. Vegetarian needs can be arranged if you tell us when you book.

The meal, the certificate and the historic centre around you

Once the cooking is done, everyone sits down together to eat the pizzas straight from the oven, followed by the tiramisu. One soft drink and unlimited water are included, and the chef shares stories about how pizza and tiramisu became famous worldwide. At the end you receive a personalised certificate with your name, printed recipes to recreate both dishes in your own kitchen, and an instant photo of you with your creation.

The school's central location makes it easy to combine the class with sightseeing. Before a 17:00 class, for example, you can walk the lanes of the historic centre of Naples, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along Spaccanapoli and Via dei Tribunali, where pizzerias, bakeries selling sfogliatella pastries and coffee counters line the old Greek street grid. An evening class turns your dinner into the experience itself.