Authentic Pizza Margherita Recipes

MARGHERITA PIZZA

Steps:

• Begin by making the dough. Dissolve the brewer's yeast in 1 1/2 cups room-temperature water and add half the flour; mix quickly, cover with a damp cloth and let it rest for 30 minutes. Then add the rest of the flour and knead the dough vigorously for at least 10 minutes, then add the salt and mix again. Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a bowl covered with plastic wrap and let it rest, refrigerated, for 24 hours.
• Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let it rest at room temperature for 2 hours. Next, stretch the dough out using your fingertips to extend it in a 13"x15" pan (or form two rounds about 10" in diameter), cover and let rest for another 30 minutes before adding toppings and baking.
• Preheat the oven to 465°F.
• Using your hands or the tines of a fork, break up the peeled tomatoes; salt them lightly. Top the 2 pizzas with the tomatoes and bake them with the pan on the bottom shelf of the oven for the first 5 minutes, then move them to the middle rack and continue baking for another 7 minutes. Remove from the oven and add bits of buffalo mozzarella and shredded basil leaves. Drizzle with olive oil and serve.

AUTHENTIC PIZZA MARGHERITA

Steps:

• Stir flour and 1 teaspoon salt in a bowl. Set aside.
• Mix water, yeast, and sugar in a large bowl. Let stand until yeast begins to form a creamy foam, about 5 minutes.
• Stir half the flour mixture into yeast mixture until no dry spots remain. Stir in remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. When dough pulls together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.
• Lightly oil a large bowl, then place dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a light cloth and let rise in a warm place (80 to 95 degrees F (27 to 35 degrees C)) until doubled in volume, about 1 hour. Punch dough down, divide into 4 equal pieces, and form each into a ball.
• Preheat oven with a pizza stone to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C).
• Stretch out and pat 1 dough ball to form a circle 10 to 12 inches in diameter. Place dough on a lightly floured pizza peel. Top with 1/2 cup of tomato sauce and spread to cover within an inch of the edge of the dough. Arrange 5 slices of mozzarella cheese on top of the tomato sauce, then place 5 basil leaves on top. Drizzle pizza with 1 tablespoon olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt to taste. Repeat for 3 remaining dough balls.
• Slide each pizza onto the pizza stone in the preheated oven. Bake until cheese is bubbly and the underside of the crust is golden brown, 5 to 7 minutes.

PIZZA MARGHERITA

Steps:

• Place a pizza stone or tiles on the middle rack of your oven and turn heat to its highest setting. Let it heat for at least an hour.
• Put the sauce in the center of the stretched dough and use the back of a spoon to spread it evenly across the surface, stopping approximately 1/2 inch from the edges.
• Drizzle a little olive oil over the pie. Break the cheese into large pieces and place these gently on the sauce. Scatter basil leaves over the top.
• Using a pizza peel, pick up the pie and slide it onto the heated stone or tiles in the oven. Bake until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is bubbling, approximately 4 to 8 minutes.