Take me away to Pizza Margherita.
I like pizza well enough, but despite living in the land of the deep dish, I don’t eat it very often (and actually don’t much prefer Chicago-style). When I do, I like it thin and load on the toppings: sausage, mushrooms, spinach, roasted veggies…really anything’s game except for green peppers. To be honest my absolute favorite is barbecued chicken, but I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that’s not an Italian original. What is an Italian original, a Southern Italian original at that, is Pizza Margherita pizza, so that’s what I present to you today.
According to Italy Magazine, way back in 1889, 28 years after the unification of Italy, during a visit to Naples, Queen Margherita of Savoy and chef Raffaele Esposito of Pizzeria Brandi and his wife created a pizza resembling the colors of the Italian flag, red (tomato), white (mozzarella) and green (basil). They named it after the Queen – Pizza Margherita. However, this recipe can can be traced back even further to at least 1866. Talk about a recipe that has been handed down for generations!
Everything about this was easy, including the homemade crust. Altogether, prep and cooking took a little over an hour, giving me just enough time to scrub the kitchen floors. It’s all about multitasking in the Buddha household.
One caveat I wasn’t a purist, and I added roasted yellow tomatoes because, gah, I just love a roasted tomato. So, I guess this was almost Margherita pizza.
Pizza Margherita
Pizza Margherita is a typical Neapolitan pizza, made with San Marzano tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, fresh basil, salt, and extra-virgin olive oil
Ingredients
- For the crust (adapted from 100 Days of Real Food):
- ½ cup warm water
- 1 tsp active dry yeast
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- Cornmeal for dusting
- Toppings:
- 1 cup canned, chopped plum San Marzano tomatoes
- 1 pint yellow grape tomatoes, roasted
- ½ lb fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
- 6 basil leaves, torn or ribboned
Directions
- Step 1 Make the crust. Drop the yeast into the warm water and let it go to work for a few minutes. It should foam up a little bit. Stir the salt into the yeast mixture.
- Step 2 Pour the flour and yeast mixture into a food processor with a dough blade or into a mixer with a dough hook and turn on the machine. (You can also mix up this dough by hand.)
- Step 3 You should end up with a ball chasing itself around the food processor. If the dough is too dry add warm water a teaspoon at a time and if it is too wet add flour 1 teaspoon at a time.
- Step 4 Remove the ball from your food processor and knead into a smooth ball. Put the dough into a large Ziploc bag or bowl covered with plastic wrap (put a touch of olive oil in and coat the inside of the bag/bowl first) then leave it in a warm place to rise for about 1 hour.
- Step 5 When ready to make the pizza preheat the oven to 500F. Use a rolling pin to roll it out into the desired shape (don’t make it too thin!) on a surface coated in cornmeal. Put the flat pizza dough on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with cooking oil. Top the dough with the tomatoes and cheese.
- Step 6 Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the crust is crisp and the cheese is bubbling. Sprinkle with the basil
