True Neapolitan pizza — 60% hydration sourdough crust, San Marzano tomato, fior di latte and basil, blistered at 450°C for 90 seconds.
A real Neapolitan pizza margherita is one of the world's most regulated dishes — the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana publishes a 13-page specification — and one of its simplest. The dough is 00 flour, water, salt and a tiny amount of yeast or sourdough, hydrated to about 60% and given a long cold proof (24–72 hours) so the gluten relaxes and the flavour deepens. The toppings are equally austere: hand-crushed San Marzano DOP tomatoes (never cooked, never blended), torn fior di latte or bufala mozzarella, a few leaves of basil, a thread of extra virgin olive oil, and a pinch of salt. The defining moment is the bake: a true Neapolitan pizza spends 60–90 seconds in a 450°C wood-fired oven, emerging with a puffy, leoparded cornicione (the raised rim) and a softer, almost wet centre that is folded and eaten like a paper aeroplane. At home you can get close with a steel or pizza stone preheated for a full hour in a 280–300°C oven, or — far better — a small portable pizza oven (Ooni, Gozney, Roccbox). The hardest part is the dough, but with a long cold ferment even novices can make pizza that startles them.
Serves 4
Dissolve the yeast (or starter) in the cold water. Add flour gradually with a spatula until shaggy, rest 20 minutes, then add the salt and knead by hand 12 minutes (or stand mixer 8 minutes) until a smooth, very extensible dough forms. The dough should pass the windowpane test — stretch a piece and it should hold light without tearing.
Cover and rest 2 hours at room temperature. Then refrigerate 24–72 hours; the longer cold ferment develops flavour and a more digestible crust. After cold proof, divide into 4 × 240 g balls and shape into tight rounds.
Place the dough balls on a floured tray with space between them (they spread), cover with a damp cloth, and proof at warm room temperature 4–6 hours until almost doubled and very puffy. They should jiggle when the tray is shaken.
An hour before baking, set oven and a thick pizza steel (or stone) to maximum, ideally 280–300°C, with the steel on the top rack. If you have a portable pizza oven, light it 25 minutes before to reach 450°C.
Crush the San Marzano tomatoes in a bowl with your hand into rough chunks — no juice should remain unbroken. Stir in a generous pinch of salt. Do NOT add olive oil, garlic, sugar, or herbs to the sauce — it goes on the pizza raw and seasons during the bake.
Dust a ball lightly with semola, then press from the centre outward with your fingertips, leaving a 2 cm raised rim. Stretch by lifting and rotating the dough over your knuckles to about 28–30 cm — never roll with a pin, which crushes the air bubbles in the crust.
Lay the dough on a floured peel. Spread 3–4 tbsp tomato in a spiral, leaving the rim bare. Scatter torn mozzarella, drizzle a teaspoon of olive oil, season with a tiny pinch of salt. Work fast — the dough sticks fast.
Add basil leaves AFTER baking — they burn black in 30 seconds in a hot oven.
Slide onto the steel/oven floor. Domestic oven at 300°C: bake 4–5 minutes with the grill on for the last minute to leopard the rim. Pizza oven at 450°C: 60–90 seconds, rotating every 20 seconds with a turning peel for even charring. Finish with fresh basil and a thread of raw olive oil.
00 flour is essential — bread flour gives a chewier, denser crust that's not Neapolitan. Caputo Pizzeria is the gold standard and widely available online.
Long cold ferment (48–72 hours) makes the biggest difference between OK pizza and stunning pizza. Same-day dough is always heavier and less flavourful.
Drain your mozzarella aggressively — wet mozzarella floods the pizza and gives you a soggy centre. Tear, salt lightly, and leave on paper towels 30+ minutes before topping.
A pizza steel beats a stone at home. Steel transfers heat about 18× faster and gives you a charred bottom in a domestic oven — the closest you can get to wood-fired without buying a pizza oven.
Margherita DOC — top with mozzarella di bufala campana DOP instead of fior di latte; richer, creamier, slightly tangier.
Marinara — same dough with only tomato, garlic, oregano and olive oil; no cheese. The original Neapolitan, even older than margherita.
Margherita extra — add a swirl of pesto after baking and a few cherry tomatoes for a modern Naples variant.
Sourdough version — replace yeast with 60 g of mature 100% hydration starter; extends cold proof to 36 hours but adds remarkable depth.
Pizza dough keeps in the fridge 72 hours total in oiled containers. Cooked pizza is best the day of; leftovers reheat in a 240°C oven on a steel for 3 minutes (never microwave). Frozen dough balls, individually bagged, keep 1 month; thaw overnight in fridge.
Pizza margherita was reputedly created in 1889 by pizzaiolo Raffaele Esposito of Pizzeria Brandi in Naples to honour Queen Margherita of Savoy, with the red tomato, white mozzarella and green basil mirroring the Italian flag. The dish was granted Specialità Tradizionale Garantita status by the EU in 2010, with strict rules on flour, hydration, and bake.
Three usual suspects: under-proofed dough (must be visibly puffy and jiggly before baking), oven not hot enough (steel-on-top-rack at full temp for an hour), or you rolled with a pin instead of stretching by hand and crushed the bubbles.
You can, but the crust will be chewier and less crisp — closer to New York than Naples. If you use bread flour, reduce hydration slightly to 56% and shorten cold ferment to 24 hours.
Either too much sauce (3–4 tbsp max per pizza), wet mozzarella (drain it!), or the bake surface wasn't hot enough — at lower temperatures the bottom doesn't crisp before the top releases moisture.
No — a domestic oven at 280–300°C with a pizza steel preheated 1 hour gives genuinely excellent results. But a small portable pizza oven (Ooni Koda 12, Gozney Roccbox) takes you from 'great' to 'indistinguishable from a Naples pizzeria.'
Per serving (380g / 13.4 oz) · 4 servings total
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