Pizza Margherita

Tomato, mozzarella, basil and olive oil on a thin, blistered Neapolitan base — ninety seconds in a very hot oven.

Untested: I have not cooked this one yet — the pizza oven has not been bought. It is here for the Pizza Ovens dive, and it is adapted from the source named in the Notes.

Ingredients

• 1 dough ball, 250 g (12-inch) or 330 g (16-inch)

Flour or semolina, for the peel

• 80 g (3 oz) Uncooked Pizza Sauce
• 100 g (3½ oz) fresh mozzarella, torn and drained
• 5 g (1 teaspoon) extra-virgin olive oil
• Fresh basil leaves

Directions

1. Heat the oven until the stone reads about 850–930 °F near the fire.
2. Stretch the dough by hand on a lightly floured peel to 12 or 16 inches, pushing the air into the rim.
3. Top quickly. Spread the sauce, leaving about ½ inch (1 cm) bare at the edge; add the mozzarella and oil. Shake the peel to check the pizza slides.
4. Bake 1–2 minutes, turning a quarter turn every 20 seconds once the bottom has set.
5. Finish with whole basil leaves after it comes out.

Notes

Sources Method from Federica Scanavini, “Margherita Pizza,” on Ooni’s recipe pages (stone 930 °F). Quantities sit at the top of the AVPN’s ranges: 60–80 g tomato, 80–100 g mozzarella, 6–7 g oil and “some” basil per pizza.

Mozzarella Fresh mozzarella is wet. Tear it and let it drain on a towel so the centre doesn’t flood.

The story The claim that the Margherita was invented for Queen Margherita in 1889 is disputed; basil and sliced mozzarella were already on Neapolitan pizza by the 1850s–60s. See the dive’s history page.

Dough Neapolitan Pizza Dough (AVPN Method) or Outdoor Pizza Oven Dough.

Temperatures are for the oven floor (stone), read with an infrared thermometer. A pizza oven’s built-in gauge reads the air, which runs much hotter.

The Pizza Ovens dive on the Food site covers the oven, the fire and the dough in depth.