This margherita pizza recipe tastes like an artisan pie from Italy! It’s the proper meld of zingy tomato sauce, gooey cheese and chewy crust.
The last word pizza pie, in our opinion? The pure and easy pizza Margherita. This iconic Italian pie is actually one thing particular: stretchy mozzarella cheese, garlicky pizza sauce, and peppery basil all piled on a chewy, charred crust.
Alex and I’ve spent over a decade researching genuine Italian pizza strategies, interviewing specialists, and even touring to Naples Italy to style it for ourselves! Listed below are the secrets and techniques to creating the very finest margherita pizza.
“I’ve used this recipe with the sauce and dough about 5 occasions now and each time in excellent! It tastes superb and all my buddies need it now. Tremendous easy and never too time consuming. Adore it!” -Christine
The way to make margherita pizza: step-by-step
Right here is an outline of methods to make margherita pizza. For all the small print, leap to the full recipe!
Step 1: Make the pizza dough. You’ll want quarter-hour to make it, then permit it to rise for 45 minutes. You may also make it forward and refrigerate or freeze till able to bake.
Step 2: Stretch the pizza dough and place it right into a pizza peel. Go to The way to Stretch Pizza Dough for our suggestions. High the pizza with pizza sauce and contemporary mozzarella cheese, minimize into small items.
Step 3: Bake the pizza on a pizza stone in a 500°F oven for six to 7 minutes, or in a pizza oven for 1 to 2 minutes. Take away from the oven and add contemporary basil. Go to the full recipe for the tutorial.
Why is it known as margherita pizza?
Pizza margherita showcases the colours of the Italian flag: crimson from the tomato sauce, white from the mozzarella, and inexperienced from the basil. The story goes that it was named after Queen Margherita of Savoy, an Italian queen within the 1800’s.
The way to pronounce margherita? With an correct Italian accent, it appears like mar-geh-REE-ta. It sounds just like the traditional Mexican cocktail, the margarita, which by the way is a typical misspelling of this phrase!
It’s simple to make margherita pizza with just a few instruments and suggestions! To get that genuine Italian crispy-on-the-outside crust, you might want to bake it at a really excessive temperature on a blazing sizzling pizza stone. Listed below are the instruments you’ll want:
- Pizza stone: That is what makes the crust crispy on the skin and delicate on the within. Right here’s the pizza stone we suggest.
- Pizza peel: A pizza peel is a paddle used to slip a pie onto the new stone within the oven. We suggest this customary pizza peel. A conveyor pizza peel is well worth the funding: it’s useful for simply sliding the pizza onto the stone.
🔥Strive a pizza oven in case you actually need to step up your sport! True artisan pizza is cooked at temperatures a lot hotter than your customary oven can obtain. The oven we suggest is comparatively cheap and heats rapidly to 1000°F.
Ideas for the pizza dough
Alex and I labored on the pizza dough on this margherita pizza recipe for years, and it’s gotten a lot of rave critiques from readers! The recipe incorporates what we’ve discovered from a number of the premiere pizza cooks in America, who themselves have studied the pizza in Naples. Listed below are just a few suggestions:
- The perfect flour for margherita pizza dough is Tipo 00 flour. This sort of Italian flour is utilized by pizzerias and makes a supple, fluffy dough. We purchase our Tipo 00 flour on-line. All-purpose or bread flour additionally work, however Tipo 00 makes the perfect pizza dough, fingers down.
- Use an incredible pizza dough recipe. Our grasp pizza dough recipe is the perfect methodology for fluffy, artisan-style pizza dough. You may make it utilizing a stand mixer or knead it by hand. Or attempt skinny crust pizza dough, which related however rolled out utilizing a rolling pin.
- If desired, attempt various pizza dough recipes which can be simpler and don’t require a pizza stone or stretching. These sheet pan pizza or focaccia pizza recipes make two pizzas directly in a sheet pan. You may also make forged iron pizza or pan pizza in a skillet.
Professional tip: Make the pizza dough prematurely and refrigerate it for as much as 3 days: it will increase in taste over time! Or, you possibly can freeze pizza dough for as much as 3 months.
Margherita pizza elements
In Italy, the normal margherita pizza topping elements are contemporary mozzarella cheese, basil leaves, and a sauce constructed from crushed tomatoes, garlic, salt and herbs. Usually the cheese is mozzarella di bufala, a contemporary cheese constructed from the milk of water buffalos that has a creamy texture.
The margherita pizza elements you want for topping this recipe are:
- Tomatoes: Our easy pizza sauce recipe stars canned fireplace roasted tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, salt and herbs. Fireplace roasted tomatoes have a candy, developed taste and can be found at most US grocery shops. Substitutes embody San Marzano tomatoes or different very best quality canned tomatoes.
- Cheese: Use contemporary mozzarella cheese right here, the sort bought in balls, and minimize it into small items for general protection. We wish to high with a light-weight sprinkle of grated Parmesan cheese for taste complexity (but it surely’s not required).
- Basil: Recent basil is vital to the flavour of an incredible margherita pizza. Make sure that so as to add to the pizza after baking so that’s stays superbly inexperienced (basil turns black in minutes within the oven).
Video with step-by-step directions
Perfecting margherita pizza could be difficult: seems, it’s best to study by watching. This step-by-step video exhibits precisely methods to make the pizza, from kneading to shaping to baking. We extremely suggest watching this earlier than you begin!
Extra home made pizza recipes
Love an incredible home made pizza? Listed below are just a few extra of our favourite pizza recipes:
Steadily requested questions
A real Margherita pizza encompasses a base of contemporary mozzarella cheese, contemporary basil leaves, and a sprinkle of salt. They’re positioned on a mattress of traditional tomato sauce atop a hand-stretched pizza dough.
Recent mozzarella presents a creamy and barely candy style that enhances the opposite elements completely. If desired, you possibly can high with a skinny layer of grated Parmesan cheese.
San Marzano tomatoes are prized for his or her sweetness and acidity, making them ultimate for Margherita pizza. We like utilizing canned fireplace roasted tomatoes for the same taste profile.
A traditional Neapolitan pizza dough made with Tipo 00 flour and cooked in a very popular oven is right. Nevertheless, home made or store-bought pizza dough can work too!
Purpose for a excessive temperature (round 450°F to 500°F) to realize a crispy crust. Baking on a preheated pizza stone can additional improve the crust’s texture.
Recent basil is finest added after baking. The warmth wilts the leaves barely, releasing their aromatic aroma with out burning them.
The dough could be ready prematurely, however assemble and bake the pizza proper earlier than serving for optimum freshness and a crispy crust. Leftovers could be reheated within the oven or in a dry skillet on the stovetop (add a drop or two of water and warmth lined for a pleasant option to reheat).
You need to use a parchment paper “peel.” Slide the pizza onto a big piece of parchment paper dusted with flour. Then, fastidiously slide the parchment paper with the pizza onto the preheated pizza stone or baking sheet within the oven.
Description
This margherita pizza recipe tastes like an artisan pie from Italy! It’s the proper meld of zingy tomato sauce, gooey cheese and chewy crust.
For the pizza dough
For the pizza sauce
- 1 small garlic clove (1/2 medium)
- 15 ounces crushed fireplace roasted tomatoes or San Marzano tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon further virgin olive oil
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt (scant)
For the toppings
- 1/4 to 1/3 cup pizza sauce
- ¾ cup shredded mozzarella cheese or 2 to 3 ounces contemporary mozzarella cheese
- Parmesan cheese, for topping (non-compulsory)
- Recent basil leaves, for garnish
- Make the pizza dough: Comply with the Finest Pizza Dough recipe to organize the dough. (This takes about quarter-hour to make and 45 minutes to relaxation.)
- Place a pizza stone within the oven and preheat to 500°F. OR preheat your pizza oven (right here’s the pizza oven we use).
- Make the pizza sauce: Lower the garlic into just a few tough items. Place the garlic, tomatoes, olive oil, oregano and kosher salt in a blender. Mix till totally mixed. (You’ll use about ⅓ cup for the pizza; reserve the remaining sauce and refrigerate for as much as 1 week.)
- Put together the cheese: If utilizing contemporary mozzarella cheese, slice it into ¼ inch thick items (see the pictures of the pre-baked pizza above). If it’s extremely watery contemporary mozzarella (all manufacturers fluctuate), you could need to let it sit on a paper towel to take away moisture for about quarter-hour then dab the mozzarella with the paper towel to take away any further moisture.
- Bake the pizza: When the oven is prepared, mud a pizza peel with cornmeal or semolina flour. (In the event you don’t have a pizza peel, you need to use a rimless baking sheet or the again of a rimmed baking sheet. However a pizza peel is effectively well worth the funding!) Stretch the dough right into a circle; see The way to Stretch Pizza Dough for directions. Then gently place the dough onto the pizza peel.
- Unfold a skinny layer of the pizza sauce over the dough, utilizing about ¼ to ⅓ cup. Add the mozzarella cheese. High with a skinny layer of contemporary grated Parmesan cheese (if utilizing) and some pinches of kosher salt.
- Use the pizza peel to fastidiously switch the pizza onto the preheated pizza stone. Bake the pizza till the cheese and crust are properly browned, about 5 to 7 minutes within the oven (or 1 minute in a pizza oven).
- Enable the pizza to chill for a minute or two earlier than including the basil on high (entire leaves, flippantly torn, or thinly sliced). Slice into items and serve instantly.
Notes
*Make the pizza dough 1 hour prematurely (for day of preparation), or you can also make it prematurely and refrigerate as much as 3 days. Refrigerating the dough really provides to the flavour. Enable refrigerated dough to return to room temperature earlier than utilizing by letting it stand for about 30 to 45 minutes. You may also freeze the dough: go to The way to Freeze Pizza Dough.
**Make the pizza sauce as much as 1 week prematurely and refrigerate.
- Class: Important Dish
- Technique: Baked
- Delicacies: Italian
Key phrases: margherita pizza recipe, margarita pizza, home made margarita pizza
