Margherita Pizza like from a stone oven, with a quick dough. The recipe to make a pizzeria-style Margherita pizza at home. The Margherita pizza is the simplest and, in my opinion, the tastiest version of pizza: its protagonists are well-fermented dough, tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil — a perfect union, an inseparable trio of colors and flavors that unmistakably recall the colors of the Italian flag and the aromas and tastes of Mediterranean cuisine. Today we’ll make a relatively quick version and bake it in my “Fun Pizza&Co Tifosi” pizza oven by Cecotec. If you can’t or prefer not to buy the oven, I’ll also give an alternative solution to bake it in a regular oven with a baking stone; the pizza will be slightly less airy and will take longer to bake, but it will still be good. Also, here’s a link to a long-fermentation dough if you want a more digestible and airy pizza: Long-fermentation pizza dough. Let’s go to the kitchen now and discover together how to make Margherita pizza like at the pizzeria. Before rolling up our sleeves, remember that if you want to stay updated on my recipes, you can follow my Facebook page and my Instagram profile.
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- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Very inexpensive
- Rest time: 3 Hours 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups fine durum wheat semolina (you can substitute with type 0 flour)
- 2 1/2 cups type 0 flour
- 1 7/8 cups water
- 2 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 1/8 tsp active dry yeast (12 g fresh)
- 1 2/3 cups tomato passata (homemade)
- 28 oz mozzarella
- to taste salt
- to taste basil
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
- 1 pinch dried oregano (optional)
Tools
- Pizza oven Fun Pizza&Co Tifosi
- Dough board
- Pizza peels
Preparation
How to make the pizza dough for a baking stone
Combine the two flours in a bowl. If you can’t find finely milled semolina, you can use only type 0 flour. Add the yeast, sugar and part of the water. Mix, then add the oil, salt and the remaining water. Work the dough in the bowl for a couple of minutes.
Cover with a kitchen towel and let rest for 10 minutes. Then turn the dough out onto the board and work it until the sticky dough starts to develop structure. Avoid adding extra flour; with a bit of patience you’ll get a well-developed dough. Use a bench scraper to help and shape into a ball, place it in a bowl and put it somewhere warm to rise until doubled in size, for example in the oven with the light on.
Once doubled (and not before), turn the dough out onto a floured work surface, degas it slightly, shape into a ball and divide into portions of 250–300 g each.
Let them rise again until doubled.
At least 45 minutes before you start baking, turn on the oven and bring it to the indicated pizza temperature (430°C / 806°F). Times are a bit long and the temperatures to reach are high.
When the oven is hot and the dough balls have doubled, you can begin.
Place a dough ball in the center of the floured work surface and stretch it with your hands, leaving the edges thicker.
Move the dough disc onto a floured peel, then top with tomato sauce (already cooked and seasoned with salt) and mozzarella.
Gently slide it into the oven, placing the pizza on the baking stone.
Close the oven and bake for 4–5 minutes, rotating the pizza 90° halfway through baking (if the oven is at temperature it will take just a few minutes). Then remove with the peel, drizzle with a little olive oil, add basil leaves (and oregano) and serve immediately. Before baking the next pizza, let the oven heat up again for a few minutes.
The pizza is ready and should be enjoyed immediately. Any leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator and eaten the next day after reheating, although they won’t be as good as freshly baked.
You can use the same dough to make a sheet-pan pizza.
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