Recipe

Margherita Pizza

2 × 30 cm pizzas (4 servings) · prep 20 min + 24 h cold fermentation · cook 8 min per pizza

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• lunch
• dinner
• italian
• vegetarian
• baking

Authored by the maintainer; Neapolitan-style with a home oven concession.

Ingredients

the dough

• 500 g 00 flour (or strong bread flour) — Puglia wheat farm
• 325 ml cold water
• 12 g fine sea salt — Trapani salt pans
• 2 g fresh yeast (or 0.7 g instant dry)

the topping

• 1 × 400 g tin San Marzano-style plum tomatoes, hand-crushed — Origin not credited
• 200 g fior di latte mozzarella, torn (or mozzarella di bufala) — Campania buffalo dairy
• 12 fresh basil leaves — Genovese basil
• Extra-virgin olive oil to finish — Liguria olive mill

Method

1. Whisk yeast into the cold water until dissolved. Add flour and salt. Mix until shaggy.
2. Knead 10 minutes by hand or 6 minutes in a stand mixer until smooth and slightly tacky. · 10 min
3. Cover and rest at room temperature for 1 hour, then refrigerate 24 hours. The flavour and structure are in the wait. · 1440 min
4. Two hours before baking, divide into 2 × 250 g balls, cover, and let come to room temperature. · 120 min
5. Heat the oven and a steel or stone to its absolute maximum — 280°C / 550°F or higher — for 45 minutes. Place the steel on the upper-middle rack. · 45 min
6. Stretch each ball by hand into a 30 cm disc, leaving the edge slightly thicker. Don't use a rolling pin — the cornicione comes from the gas in the edge.
7. Top with crushed tomatoes (a thin layer, leaving a 2 cm border), torn mozzarella, and a glug of olive oil. Basil goes on after baking.
8. Slide onto the hot steel. Bake 5–8 minutes until the cornicione is leopard-spotted black. · 8 min
9. Pull from the oven. Scatter fresh basil leaves over the hot pizza, add a final drizzle of olive oil. Eat within five minutes.

Notes

The home-oven concession: a pizza oven runs at 450°C / 850°F and
cooks the pizza in 90 seconds. A home oven at 280°C takes 5–8 minutes
and produces a slightly drier crust. Both are good. The wood-fired
version is better.

Cold ferment shortcut: 8 hours at room temperature gives a passable
dough if you can't wait 24. The 24-hour version has a deeper flavour
and an easier-to-stretch dough.