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🇮🇹 Pizza · Italy
Pizza Margherita
Classic Neapolitan pizza: long cold-proof dough, San Marzano, mozzarella, and fresh basil torn after the oven.
48–72h cold proof
What gives Neapolitan dough its char and airy structure
Stone heated 45+ min
Without serious heat under the pizza, the crust never sets
Hand-stretch, never roll
Rolling pin collapses the gas pockets in the crust
Basil after the oven
Leaves added after baking — heat would scorch them
Ingredients 4 servings
- For the dough (4 pizzas): 500 g 00 flour (or bread flour), 325 ml cold water, 10 g salt, 1 g fresh yeast (or ¼ tsp dried)
- For each pizza: 80 g San Marzano tomatoes (canned, hand-crushed), a pinch of salt, a drizzle of olive oil
- 100 g fior di latte mozzarella per pizza, torn into pieces (or buffalo mozzarella)
- A few fresh basil leaves per pizza
- Extra-virgin olive oil to finish
- Semolina or flour for shaping and the peel
How to make it
- 1For the dough, dissolve the yeast in the cold water then mix in the flour and salt until you have a shaggy mass, knead by hand for 10 minutes (or 6 minutes with a stand mixer and dough hook) until smooth and elastic, cover and rest at room temperature for an hour, then refrigerate for at least 24 hours and ideally 48 to 72 — the long cold proof is what gives Neapolitan dough its blistered char and airy structure.
- 2Two hours before baking, take the dough out, divide into four 210 g balls, dust with flour, cover with a damp cloth and let them come to room temperature, meanwhile heat the oven as hot as it goes (250°C or above) with a pizza stone or heavy steel sheet inside for at least 45 minutes; without serious heat under the pizza, the crust will never set in time.
- 3Hand-stretch one ball on a well-floured surface — press the centre flat with your fingertips leaving a raised lip, then gently pull and stretch the disc to about 28 cm across — never use a rolling pin, which collapses the gas pockets in the crust — and slide it onto a floured peel.
- 4Spoon 80 g of crushed tomato into the centre and spread it in a spiral with the back of the spoon stopping 2 cm from the edge, salt the tomato lightly, drizzle a little olive oil, and scatter the torn mozzarella over the top (not too much, or the pizza floods).
- 5Slide the pizza onto the stone and bake until the crust is puffed and charred in spots, the cheese has melted into pools and the rim is dark gold — 4 to 6 minutes in a domestic oven at full blast, 90 seconds in a wood-fired Neapolitan oven — pull it out, tear over the basil leaves (which would scorch in the oven), drizzle a final thread of olive oil, and eat immediately.
Nutritional info
per serving (~350 g)
Calories 740 kcal
Protein 28 g
Carbs 88 g
Fat 30 g
Fiber 4 g
Estimated nutritional values.
Pairs perfectly with
🥖 Crusty Italian bread
🍷 Dry Italian red (Chianti)
🧀 Extra Parmigiano
🫒 Extra-virgin olive oil
