Name: Pizza Margherita
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 1 h 5 min
Yield: 3 servings
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: 500 g 00 flour, or strong bread flour; 325 ml cold water; 10 g fine salt; 1/4 tsp dry yeast; 400 g San Marzano tomatoes, one can, whole peeled; 250 g fresh mozzarella, fior di latte, drained well; 1 handful fresh basil leaves; extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling; semolina or flour, for the peel

Margherita is the pizza every other pizza is measured against: tomato, mozzarella, basil, olive oil, and nothing to hide behind. The official Neapolitan rules run to pages, but the home truth is shorter: a slow-risen dough, a raw tomato sauce, and the hottest surface your oven can give you.

Start the dough the day before. The overnight cold ferment is where the flavor and the blistered rim come from, and it makes the day-of work almost nothing.

Margherita leads our tour of the world's classic dishes from 67 countries.

method

The day before: dissolve the yeast in the water, add the flour, then the salt, and knead for 10 minutes to a smooth dough. Rest it covered for 2 hours at room temperature.

Divide into 3 balls, put each in a lightly oiled container, and refrigerate for 8 to 24 hours.

An hour before baking, take the dough out. Put a pizza steel or stone on the top rack and heat the oven as high as it goes, 275°C (530°F) or more, for a full 45 minutes.

Tear the mozzarella into pieces and leave it draining on paper towels. Crush the tomatoes by hand with a good pinch of salt; the sauce stays raw.

Stretch a ball on a floured surface with your fingertips and knuckles into a 28 to 30 cm round, pressing from the center outward and leaving the rim untouched.

On a floured peel: a thin layer of sauce, a third of the mozzarella, a drizzle of oil. Slide onto the steel and switch the oven to grill/broil.

Bake for 5 to 7 minutes, until the rim is puffed and leopard-spotted and the cheese is just melted. Top with basil and another thread of oil after it comes out. Repeat with the rest.

chef's tips

Drain the mozzarella for at least an hour. Watery cheese is the number one cause of soggy margherita.
A pizza steel beats a stone in a home oven; it transfers heat faster at lower temperatures.
Never use a rolling pin. The air you press out of the rim is the air that was going to make it beautiful.
The sauce is crushed raw tomatoes and salt, nothing else. Cooking it first makes it taste like pasta sauce.