Back to the basics - The Margherita Pizza
For a long time I’d been wanting to recreate the original style pizza in all of it’s classic glory. One of the experiments I did during my break from blogging was this beauty, the Margherita Pizza! As the story goes, famous “pizzaiolo” Raffaele Esposito was asked by Queen Margherita to present his flatbread delicacy. He created a pizza to represent the colors of the Italian flag, red sauce, green basil leaves and white cheese. It was a great combination then and it still rocks now.
For my variant, I stuck with what I know for the crust - a nice batch of fresh traditional. However, on top I spread blended roma tomatoes very lightly salted and teased with oregano, slices of mozzarella cheese and large fresh basil leaves. After sprinkling the pie with romano cheese, I baked it at 480 degrees for 8 minutes. The result was a quite refreshing change. The simple combination of the fundamental ingredients made for a terrific treat. I will be doing this pizza again - squisito!
February 16th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Great Website.
I live in Northeast Ohio (originally from Philly) where they consider Papa John’s pizza good pizza. I started making my own pizza at home about ten years ago. Most people say I make better pizza than any of the local places but I never liked my own pizza until recently.
I believe the secret to good pizza is the dough. The first improvement I realized was making the dough the day before and letting it sit in the fridge over night. Even freezing it for a week was an improvement in the texture and taste of the dough. I also only King Arthur bread flour (high gluten). Your website is the first place I have ever seen where you recommend letting the dough rest in the fridge overnight.
I have also been experimenting with the amount of olive oil I use. I find that I prefer only a 1/2 teaspoon versus 2 teaspoons recommended by most recipes. The crust seems more crispy and chewy at the same time with less oil.
One last thing I prefer to do is use sliced mozzarella over shredded. Given the same amount of sauce from pizza to pizza, the sliced cheese does not seem to slide off the pizza as readily.
Thanks again Mike.
February 24th, 2007 at 12:56 am
So, High Gluten flour is the answer? I tried bread flour today for the first time. I don’t know what I did wrong, but I didn’t get a good rise and the dough didn’t cook through. I could have also been because I tried it in disposable pie tins. I don’t know. Any tips?
March 5th, 2007 at 11:02 am
I have a question and I don’t quite know where I should ask it so I will ask it here. Why would some one put a fresh bottle of orange soda in their dough mix? does any one know? I have heard of a pizza place that does that in massachusetts some where. I have never had their pizza.
March 30th, 2007 at 12:11 am
Hello, I recently been using your site for tweeking my pizza recipe. I`m in the U. S. Navy stationed overseas in Japan. I`m retiring this year aqfter 22 years of service. Anyway my Japanese friends and my wife also Japanese have always loved my pizza. I`ve been making it for over 15 years. Of course it has never lived up to my memories of Home, (South Philly) Soory about the grammer I`m using a Japanese keyboard, very difficult.
Most of our friends think I should open an Itallian Deli here in Japan specializing in South Philly delights.
Believe it or not the Japanese have a cut of meat exactly like the one they use in Philly. The problem is making
the hoagie roll and pizza crust right. I`ve been using your pizza crust recipe and it`s almost perfect. I found a good website that sells Caputo Flour which allot of corner shops in Philly used when I was a kid. I`m gonna order and try it out.
http://www.molinocaputo.it/#
I`ve done my homework, from getting the correct blue print for brick ovens and have a friend here in Japan that is a brick layer.
Any other ideas would be appreciated.
April 8th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
I share your passion for making pizza. The pictures of the Margherita, certainly make my mouth water.
I greatly appreciate the before and after.
I have been changing my dough recipe somewhat. I have backed off on the amount of yeast I use and am trying to just use the minimal amount.
I have found great taste with Harvest King flour by General Mills.
I agree about making the dough the day before. I think it imparts a much richer taste.
pizza on earth…
August 30th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Pizza Margherita is my favorite! You can’t beat the combo of mozzarella cheese, basil and tomatoes…
I use fresh mozzarella cheese cut in small cubes. Cutting it in cubes avoids the cheese to get burned when I put the pie in my wood fired oven.
September 5th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
So as to the orange soda in pizza dough that I have never tried but do incorporate the use of draft beer in mine. I feel it gives it a little more richness to the yeast and might add a little fluff to my crispier dough.
The margherita we serve is done with a pesto base instead of the tomatoe grind and we use heirloom tomates with fresh mozz and just a dash of sea salt. One of our most popular.