Margherita Pizza Recipe

Margherita pizza or ‘pizza Margherita’ is the simplest, yet most difficult pizza to absolutely nail. with such simple ingredients, there is nowhere to hide mistakes. This recipe is fairly true to ‘authentic’ Italian pizza.

Margherita pizza is made with a simple tomato sauce, buffalo mozzarella, a drizzle of olive oil, and fresh basil leaves. The simplicity and freshness of the ingredients are what make this pizza so phenomenal. Outside of the authentic fresh Italian ingredients, Neapolitan-style pizza is the technique of quickly cooking pizza at very high temperatures.

I’ve been painstakingly trying to perfect Neapolitan-style pizza using a conventional kitchen oven. It’s impossibly hard to match the qualities of 1000 degree brick oven using a regular oven, however, I’ve gotten really close with the right tools and techniques.

After much trial and error, I’ve finally cracked the code for making really good homemade pizza without expensive equipment.

Why This Recipe Works

This recipe is based on creating the hottest environment in your oven as possible. I use a few important techniques to augment my oven’s cooking power!

• A hot oven and preheated baking steel will help to cook the pizza very quickly, rendering a light and airy crust with irresistible charring.
• Broiling the pizza halfway through will sear the crust and provide a perfect golden finish with beautiful charring on the top and crust.

Equipment

• Pizza baking steel: steel has a much greater heat potential and does a better job at transferring heat than a baking sheet or pizza stone. I absolutely love mine.
• Pizza peel: this is essential for sliding your pizza on and off your pizza steel.

Ingredients

• Pizza dough: make your own or use store-bought. Regardless, make sure chilled dough has had 3-4 hours to warm on the counter prior to baking.
• Fresh buffalo mozzarella: most Margherita pizza in Italy is made with buffalo mozzarella since it’s rich and creamy. If you can’t find that, regular fresh mozzarella works too.
• Freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano: this is optional but adds a pop of salty flavor.
• Extra virgin olive oil: I lightly drizzle my pizza with nice olive oil just before serving. It adds awesome flavor.
• Canned San Marzano tomatoes: always look for Peeled San Marzano tomatoes imported from Italy. These are grown near Mount Vesuvius.
• Semolina or all-purpose flour: a well-floured pizza peel helps make sliding your pizza into your oven a breeze. Semolina flour is more coarse and acts like ball bearings.
• Garlic: garlic is an optional ingredient for the pizza sauce. Neapolitan pizza sauce usually omits garlic as it can be overpowering.

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities below.

How to Make Neapolitan-Style Pizza

Step 1.

For the homemade sauce: Combine tomatoes, oil, and salt in a small bowl. Blend with an immersion blender until smooth. You can also pulse a blender or food processor. Add more salt to taste as needed. This will render more sauce than you need. I use 1/3-1/2 cup of sauce for each pizza. For a more rustic sauce, you can hand-crush the tomatoes or use a potato masher. If the sauce is too acidic, add a TINY pinch of sugar.

Step 2.

For the pizza: Remove the dough from the fridge prior to cooking. Place dough in a greased bowl and seal with plastic wrap or aluminum foil. Let rest for at least 3-4 hours or until the dough is no longer cool to the touch. This is very important for light and fluffy crust. The dough will puff up and nearly double in size.

Step 3.

Preheat the oven to as hot as it can go, usually 500-550°F. Place the pizza steel (or pizza stone) in the oven and let preheat for one hour. I position my rack about 8 inches from the top burner.

Step 4.

Place the dough onto a floured surface and shape/stretch it into a 12-inch crust. Be sure the dough is adequately floured and not sticky. Try to get the crust as thin as possible in the center, about 1/4 inch thick. This is best done with your hands by gently stretching. Avoid a roller for best results.

Step 5.

Place a small handful of flour onto a pizza peel and spread evenly to prevent the dough from sticking to the peel.

Step 6.

Transfer the dough onto the peel. Evenly coat with sauce leaving a 1-inch crust all the way around. Add the fresh mozzarella strips or cubes. Do not overcrowd.

Step 7.

Slide the finished pizza onto the steel and bake for 5-6 minutes or until the pizza is 80% done. Turn on the oven’s broiler and broil on high for 2-3 additional minutes or until the crust is just starting to char on top.

Step 8.

Remove from the oven and immediately top with freshly and finely grated parmigiano reggiano. Serve topped with fresh basil leaves and a circular drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Room Temperature Ingredients

Using room-temperature toppings (cheese and sauce) and pizza dough is arguably the most important step for a number of reasons. Room temperature dough is much more malleable and less elastic. You will have a much easier time shaping the crust without the need to use a rolling pin, which forces out the desired air bubbles.

Overworking cold dough will stiffen the gluten and will result in pizza that is bread-like, dense, and tough. Room temperature dough will cook much faster and puff up around the edges when cooked, rendering a perfect light and airy crust with amazing texture and crunch.

Always let the dough rest on the counter for 3-4 hours so it can warm up prior to starting. This will relax the gluten, allowing the dough to maintain its desired shape without snapping back. If making your own pizza dough, here is a great 72-hour pizza dough recipe.

Neapolitan Pizza Sauce

The best homemade pizza is made with authentic pizza sauce. I’ve hacked together my own Italian-inspired sauce using canned San Marzano tomatoes, olive oil, and a pinch of salt. The sauce is very simple but tastes fresh and authentic. Plus it only takes a minute to spin together. Take a look at Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce next!

All you need to do to make this sauce is blend a few whole canned tomatoes with salt and olive oil. You can use an immersion blender or even a single-serve blender to gently blend the tomatoes into a smoother texture.

For the best tomatoes, look for imported San Marzano Peeled Tomatoes. These are grown in the Sarnese-Nocerino district and are renowned for their quality due to the mineral-rich volcanic soil near Mount Vesuvius. Pastene and Cento are two brands I’ve used.

Several homemade pizza sauce recipes call for precooking the sauce prior to topping the pizza. The high oven temps will cook the tomatoes adequately so there is no need to do so. By heating the sauce only once, you’ll also preserve the tomato’s freshness. You will be amazed at the difference in the quality of homemade pizza sauce over jarred.

Frequently Asked Questions

More Pizza Recipes

• How to grill pizza
• Buffalo chicken pizza
• Butternut squash pizza
• Skillet pizza
• Proscuitto fig and arugula pizza
• 5 easy flatbread pizza ideas

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