This margherita pizza recipe tastes like an artisan pie from Italy! It’s the easiest meld of zingy tomato sauce, gooey cheese and chewy crust.
Without equal pizza pie, in our opinion? The natural and easy pizza Margherita. This iconic Italian pie is really 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 unique Italian pizza strategies, interviewing professionals, or even touring to Naples Italy to style it for ourselves! Listed below are the secrets and techniques to creating the very easiest margherita pizza.
“I’ve used this recipe with the sauce and dough about 5 instances now and each and every time in best! It tastes superb and all my buddies need it now. Tremendous easy and no longer too time eating. Like it!” -Christine
Tips on how to make margherita pizza: step-by-step
This is an summary of the way to make margherita pizza. For all of the main points, leap to the complete recipe!
Step 1: Make the pizza dough. You’ll want quarter-hour to make it, then permit it to upward push for 45 mins. You’ll be able to additionally make it forward and refrigerate or freeze till able to bake.
Step 2: Stretch the pizza dough and position it right into a pizza peel. Pass to Tips on how to Stretch Pizza Dough for our guidelines. Best the pizza with pizza sauce and contemporary mozzarella cheese, lower into small items.
Step 3: Bake the pizza on a pizza stone in a 500°F oven for six to 7 mins, or in a pizza oven for 1 to two mins. Take away from the oven and upload contemporary basil. Pass to the complete recipe for the academic.
Why is it known as margherita pizza?
Pizza margherita showcases the colours of the Italian flag: purple from the tomato sauce, white from the mozzarella, and inexperienced from the basil. The tale is going that it was once named after Queen Margherita of Savoy, an Italian queen within the 1800’s.
Tips on how to pronounce margherita? With an right kind Italian accessory, it seems like mar-geh-REE-ta. It sounds just like the vintage Mexican cocktail, the margarita, which by the way is a not unusual misspelling of this phrase!
It’s simple to make margherita pizza with a couple of gear and guidelines! To get that unique Italian crispy-on-the-outside crust, you want to bake it at an excessively prime temperature on a blazing scorching pizza stone. Listed below are the gear you’ll want:
- Pizza stone: That is what makes the crust crispy at the exterior and comfortable at the inside of. Right here’s the pizza stone we propose.
- Pizza peel: A pizza peel is a paddle used to slip a pie onto the recent stone within the oven. We propose this usual pizza peel. A conveyor pizza peel is well worth the funding: it’s at hand for simply sliding the pizza onto the stone.
🔥Check out a pizza oven in case you in reality wish to step up your sport! True artisan pizza is cooked at temperatures a lot warmer than your usual oven can reach. The oven we propose is rather reasonably priced and heats briefly to 1000°F.
Guidelines for the pizza dough
Alex and I labored at the pizza dough on this margherita pizza recipe for years, and it’s gotten a lot of rave critiques from readers! The recipe comprises what we’ve discovered from one of the crucial premiere pizza cooks in The us, who themselves have studied the pizza in Naples. Listed below are a couple of guidelines:
- The most efficient flour for margherita pizza dough is Tipo 00 flour. This kind 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 paintings, however Tipo 00 makes the most productive pizza dough, palms down.
- Use an ideal pizza dough recipe. Our grasp pizza dough recipe is the most productive manner for fluffy, artisan-style pizza dough. You’ll be able to make it the usage of a stand mixer or knead it through hand. Or check out skinny crust pizza dough, which equivalent however rolled out the usage of a rolling pin.
- If desired, check out choice pizza dough recipes which are more uncomplicated and don’t require a pizza stone or stretching. Those sheet pan pizza or focaccia pizza recipes make two pizzas directly in a sheet pan. You’ll be able to additionally make cast-iron pizza or pan pizza in a skillet.
Professional tip: Make the pizza dough upfront and refrigerate it for as much as 3 days: it will increase in taste through the years! Or, you’ll be able to 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 overwhelmed tomatoes, garlic, salt and herbs. Regularly 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 hearth roasted tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, salt and herbs. Hearth roasted tomatoes have a candy, advanced taste and are to be had at maximum US grocery retail outlets. Substitutes come with San Marzano tomatoes or different easiest high quality canned tomatoes.
- Cheese: Use contemporary mozzarella cheese right here, the type bought in balls, and lower it into small items for general protection. We adore to best with a mild sprinkle of grated Parmesan cheese for taste complexity (however it’s no longer required).
- Basil: Recent basil is essential to the flavour of an ideal margherita pizza. Remember to upload to the pizza after baking in order that is remains superbly inexperienced (basil turns black in mins within the oven).
Video with step-by-step directions
Perfecting margherita pizza may also be difficult: seems, it’s perfect to be informed through looking at. This step by step video presentations precisely the way to make the pizza, from kneading to shaping to baking. We extremely suggest looking at this ahead of you get started!
Extra home made pizza recipes
Love an ideal home made pizza? Listed below are a couple of extra of our favourite pizza recipes:
Continuously requested questions
A real Margherita pizza includes a base of unpolluted mozzarella cheese, contemporary basil leaves, and a sprinkle of salt. They’re put on a mattress of vintage tomato sauce atop a hand-stretched pizza dough.
Recent mozzarella gives a creamy and relatively candy style that enhances the opposite elements completely. If desired, you’ll be able to best with a skinny layer of grated Parmesan cheese.
San Marzano tomatoes are prized for his or her sweetness and acidity, making them best for Margherita pizza. We adore the usage of canned hearth roasted tomatoes for the same taste profile.
A vintage Neapolitan pizza dough made with Tipo 00 flour and cooked in a very popular oven is perfect. On the other hand, home made or store-bought pizza dough can paintings too!
Purpose for a prime temperature (round 450°F to 500°F) to succeed in a crispy crust. Baking on a preheated pizza stone can additional give a boost to the crust’s texture.
Recent basil is easiest added after baking. The warmth wilts the leaves relatively, freeing their aromatic aroma with out burning them.
The dough may also be ready upfront, however collect and bake the pizza proper ahead of serving for optimum freshness and a crispy crust. Leftovers may also be reheated within the oven or in a dry skillet at the stovetop (upload a drop or two of water and warmth coated for a pleasing approach to reheat).
You’ll be able to use a parchment paper “peel.” Slide the pizza onto a big piece of parchment paper dusted with flour. Then, in moderation 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 easiest 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 oz. overwhelmed hearth roasted tomatoes or San Marzano tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon additional 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 oz. contemporary mozzarella cheese
- Parmesan cheese, for topping (non-compulsory)
- Recent basil leaves, for garnish
- Make the pizza dough: Apply the Perfect Pizza Dough recipe to arrange the dough. (This takes about quarter-hour to make and 45 mins to relaxation.)
- Position 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: Minimize the garlic into a couple of tough items. Position the garlic, tomatoes, olive oil, oregano and kosher salt in a blender. Mix till totally blended. (You’ll use about ⅓ cup for the pizza; reserve the rest sauce and refrigerate for as much as 1 week.)
- Get ready the cheese: If the usage of 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 range), you might wish to let it take a seat on a paper towel to take away moisture for approximately quarter-hour then dab the mozzarella with the paper towel to take away any further moisture.
- Bake the pizza: When the oven is able, mud a pizza peel with cornmeal or semolina flour. (In case you don’t have a pizza peel, you’ll be able to use a rimless baking sheet or the again of a rimmed baking sheet. However a pizza peel is definitely well worth the funding!) Stretch the dough right into a circle; see Tips on how to Stretch Pizza Dough for directions. Then gently position the dough onto the pizza peel.
- Unfold a skinny layer of the pizza sauce over the dough, the usage of about ¼ to ⅓ cup. Upload the mozzarella cheese. Best with a skinny layer of unpolluted grated Parmesan cheese (if the usage of) and a couple of pinches of kosher salt.
- Use the pizza peel to rigorously switch the pizza onto the preheated pizza stone. Bake the pizza till the cheese and crust are well browned, about 5 to 7 mins within the oven (or 1 minute in a pizza oven).
- Permit the pizza to chill for a minute or two ahead of including the basil on best (entire leaves, calmly torn, or thinly sliced). Slice into items and serve in an instant.
Notes
*Make the pizza dough 1 hour upfront (for day of preparation), or you’ll be able to make it upfront and refrigerate as much as 3 days. Refrigerating the dough if truth be told provides to the flavour. Permit refrigerated dough to return to room temperature ahead of the usage of through letting it stand for approximately 30 to 45 mins. You’ll be able to additionally freeze the dough: cross to Tips on how to Freeze Pizza Dough.
**Make the pizza sauce as much as 1 week upfront and refrigerate.
- Class: Primary Dish
- Means: Baked
- Delicacies: Italian
Key phrases: margherita pizza recipe, margarita pizza, home made margarita pizza