Margherita Pizza Cooking Recipe
This pizza was prepared for the first time in 1889 by the chef Raffaele Esposito, for Queen Margherita of Austria, while on holiday in Naples with her husband, King Umberto of Savoy. The pizzaiolo wanted to represent the tricolor Italian flag with the colors of his pizza ingredients: the red of the tomato, the white of the mozzarella, and the green of the basil. In the light of the Queen’s enthusiasm, he baptized his creation “Margherita.” The next day, Pizza Margherita was on the menu, and the best seller in the Esposito family’s pizzeria.
Makes one pizza approximately 12 in. (30 cm) in diameter
- Preparation time: 5 minutes
- Cooking time: 5-6 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 ball of pizza dough
- 1 portion of tomato sauce
- 1 portion of mozzarella
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- A few basil leaves
Cooking Method
- Preheat the oven to 535°F (270°C-280°C), choosing the setting for combined top and bottom heating. Place a baking stone on the floor of the oven.
- Flour the counter and your hands.
- With the help of a spatula, take a ball of pizza and place it on the work surface. With your fingertips, begin to lightly flatten out the ball of dough to create a disk.
- Once you can place both hands flat on it, begin to stretch the dough by pulling from the middle toward the outside edge, turning it by 90 degrees with each movement of the hands until you have a disk of approximately 12 in. (30 cm) in diameter.
- Using a ladle or spoon, spread the tomato sauce from the center outward with a circular motion.
- Add the crumbled mozzarella, and drizzle over the olive oil. Using a pizza peel, slide the pizza directly onto the preheated baking stone and cook for 5 to 6 minutes.
- On removal from the oven, decorate with the basil leaves and serve immediately.
Did you know?
- A letter from the royal household, praising the “excellent” pizzas prepared by Esposito, is still on show in the Ancient Pizzeria Brandi in Naples, birthplace of the Margherita.
Neapolitan Pizza Cooking Recipe
Neapolitan pizza is very rich-tasting, thanks to its seasoning based on capers and anchovies.
It is often prepared without mozzarella, when it is known as pizza rossa.
Makes one pizza approximately 12 in. (30 cm) in diameter
- Preparation time: 5 minutes
- Cooking time: 5-6 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 ball of pizza dough
- 1 portion of tomato sauce
- 1 portion of mozzarella
- 5 anchovy fillets in oil
- 1 tablespoon salted capers (presoaked to remove salt)
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- A few basil leaves
Cooking Method
- Preheat the oven to 535°F (270°C-280°C), choosing the setting for combined top and bottom heating. Place a baking stone on the floor of the oven.
- Flour the counter and your hands.
- With the help of a spatula, take a ball of pizza and place it on the work surface. With your fingertips, begin to lightly flatten out the ball of dough to create a disk (1).
- Once you can place both hands flat on it, begin to stretch the dough by pulling from the middle toward the outside edge, turning it by 90 degrees with each movement of the hands until you have a disk of approximately 12 in. (30 cm) in diameter (2).
- Using a ladle or spoon, spread the tomato sauce from the center outward with a circular motion (3).
- Add the topping ingredients in the following order: chopped mozzarella, anchovies, and capers, then drizzle over the olive oil (4).
- Using a pizza peel, slide the pizza directly onto the preheated baking stone and cook for 5 to 6 minutes.
- On removal from the oven, decorate with the basil leaves and serve immediately.
Did you know?
- Curiously: in Naples, Neapolitan pizza is called pizza Romana— Roman pizza!
