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.
pizza margherita
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.
Notes
Sambar is this delicious South Indian lentil and vegetable stew that you’ve never heard of. It’s something you need to try for yourself.
It really should be popular. I think it’s only on two Indian restaurant menus in town. The two best restaurants. But still. Just not enough South Indian restaurants around. Not yet anyway. But it’s coming. And it’s about time.
More restaurants need to serve sambar – seriously
I know. I rant about the world needing Indian restaurants to mix it up a lot. But it does. And if we don’t ask for it we won’t ever get it. Seriously.
There are more than 20 dishes served in India. Restaurants should try harder to represent their culture. Their food. That wonderful, wonderful food.
Traditional sambar is served with different South Indian flatbreads you’ve probably never heard of. Idli. Dosa. Or vadas. Vadas are these super tasty fried ground lentil donuts. Crazy good. And they eat it for breakfast. My kind of breakfast!
Convinced yet? You should be. Big flavours in this dish. Curry leaves. Green chilies. Tamarind. Spice. Tomato. All working together. Perfect against the lentils.
Vegetarian, healthy and delicious
This is a vegetarian meal. Vegan even. But it’s not just for vegetarians. It’s deeply satisfying. For anyone. And it makes a great addition along side other curries. A counterpoint for whatever curry you feel like cooking. That’s how I eat sambar. Equal footing with other curries.
