Pizza Margherita

Pizza margherita is the ultimate pizza. Tomato sauce. Fresh mozzarella. Basil. Olive oil. Everything has to perfect. There is nowhere to hide.

I think pizza margherita is the true test of a pizza joint. If they can get this right, they can get anything right. It’s what I order every time I visit a new pizza restaurant.

There is real beauty in the simplicity of pizza margherita. Delicate almost. Simple flavours that come together to make something surprising. Something unexpectedly good.

After all, there’s nothing to pizza margherita. It’s a cheese pizza. Like you feed little kids. That’s why I love it. To make something so seemingly uninteresting absolutely delicious. That’s just magic.

Dough

At the base, the dough has to be great. Bland dough equals bland pizza margherita. No way around it.

Neapolitan pizza dough only has 4 ingredients. Flour, salt, yeast and water. That’s it. So it’s important to learn how to make it. It’s a bit of a journey to master but it is absolutely worth it. Figure that out and you will be able to make better pizza than you can buy.

Sauce

Neapolitan pizza sauce is also simple. Pure tomato flavour. Only two ingredients. San Marzano tomatoes and salt. For real. Nothing more. Not cooked.

Just put a can of San Marzano tomatoes through a food mill. Add a teaspoon of kosher salt. Stir. That’s it. Done. Delicious. Try it. You will be converted. Hard to believe but true. Less is definitely more here.

Cheese

Fresh mozzarella is key to pizza margherita. Neapolitan pizza in general. For the ultimate experience seek out the real stuff. It’s made with buffalo milk. Expensive though. And not so easy to find.

Fior di latte is a good substitute. It’s made with cow’s milk. A lot cheaper. And easier to find. I use it pretty regularly. People don’t seem to mind.

There are lots of great pizzas you can make with dry mozzarella. The stuff that comes in bricks. But pizza margarita isn’t one of them. Just don’t do it.

Ingredients Neapeolitan pizza sauce

• 1 28 oz can San Marzano tomatoes

• 1 tsp kosher salt (or 2/3 tsp table salt)

Pizza Margherita

• 1 batch neapolitan pizza dough see note for link

• 8 oz fresh mozzarella or fior di latte

• 6-8 fresh basil leaves

• sprinkle of parmigiano reggiano

• drizzle of olive oil

Instructions

• Preheat your pizza oven. Actual temperature depends on the nature of the oven you are using. I can't tell you what temperature works best for your oven. You have to figure that out. Between 700-800F is a good starting point.

• While your oven heats up, coarsely pull apart your fresh mozzarella. You want pieces about the size of a grape. Put the cheese on paper towel and cover with more paper towel. You are trying to dry it out a bit.

• Open the dough. Don't roll it. Just don't. Unless you like tough, dense dough of course.

• Put about 4 tablespoons of sauce on the pizza dough. Spread it around. Use two spoons here. If you use the same spoon you will cross contaminate your sauce. And it will go off faster. Trust me. I've made this mistake more than once.

• Place the mozzarella on the pizza. You are looking for a roughly even distribution. Sprinkle a bit of parmigiano overtop. Add 3-4 basil leaves and drizzle with olive oil.

• Flour your peel. Pull the pizza gently onto the peel. Reshape your pizza to try to get it roughly round.

• Launch your pizza. Be brave. Don't try to jiggle it off the paddle. That makes the dough contract. Makes the pizza shrink. You want to be assertive. You may fail the first few times but you will get it.

• Depending on temperature your pizza will cook in 90 seconds to 2 minutes. Watch the edge of the pizza while it cooks. Rotate it as needed to avoid burning badly. A bit of char is good. Too much isn't.

• As soon as the crust starts to go light brown and you see the little black blisters pull the pizza. If the top isn't done your oven is either too hot or there is not enough heat coming down from above. Google refractory heat. It will make sense.