The ultimate margherita pizza
- Published: 4 May 17
- Updated: 26 May 25
Discover how to make the ultimate margherita pizza at home – no pizza oven required. We’ve given the traditional Neapolitan pizzeria favourite some tweaks to make it achievable in a home kitchen and deliver the best flavour and texture. It might not be authentic but it is delicious!
- Tried-and-tested recipe: There are two classic Naples pizzas: marinara has a thin, crisp base topped with fresh tomato passata and dotted with garlic and oregano; margherita has the same base topped with fresh tomato passata, mozzarella and fresh basil. We found that a mix of both varieties with a cooked tomato sauce – and some Worcestershire sauce (controversial!) – was a winner.
- Pizza history: The Italian city of Naples claims to be the home of authentic pizza because it has the world’s oldest pizzeria, established in 1738. Pizza marinara gets its name from the Neapolitan sailors who ate it in the 18th century. Pizza margherita was supposedly created much later and named after Margherita, the Queen of Italy, who visited the city in 1889. Its colours – green, white and red – matched those of the Italian flag.
- How to cook crisp pizza in the oven: Neapolitan pizzas are traditionally cooked at 485°C for 60-90 seconds. That’s not possible in a domestic oven. A pizza stone helps to create a crisp crust, but if you don’t have one a hot baking sheet will do a similar job. Roll out the dough as thinly as you can, then hold it up to the light – it’s the right thickness when you can almost see through it.
Prefer something a little meatier? Check out our margherita pizza with chorizo recipe for a fiery kick.
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Makes 2 x 30cm pizzas -
Hands-on time 40 min, oven time 10-11 min, plus rising and proving
Before you start
In our recipe testing we found that certain ingredients made an essential difference to the outcome. Here’s what we recommend:
- We thought that only the finest ingredients, such as fresh buffalo mozzarella would do. We were wrong – soft mozzarella proved to be too watery, whereas the cheaper blocks of ‘cooking’ mozzarella and packs of ready-grated mozzarella melted perfectly without releasing too much liquid.
- We used Waitrose Essential Bread Flour for the dough, which worked well. Special ‘00’ flours might make a small difference to the texture, but not enough to justify spending extra.
- What did make a difference was good quality passata because it’s made with more flavoursome tomatoes. Look for brands such as Cirio or Natoora.
- The herbs are key ingredients. Italians often use dried oregano, but we recommend using fresh leaves, along with the fresh basil.
Nutrition
- Calories
- 602kcals
- Fat
- 24.8g (11.9g saturated)
- Protein
- 25g
- Carbohydrates
- 63g (5.2g sugars)
- Fibre
- 4.3g
- Salt
- 1.2g
delicious. tips
4 great ways to jazz up your margherita pizza
Crumble 100g ’nduja over the tomato sauce- topped base along with the grated mozzarella.
Fry 3 sliced onions for 1 hour until caramelised. Pile the onions on top of the tomato sauce-topped base, then sprinkle with crumbled goat’s cheese and fresh thyme leaves.
Drizzle fresh pesto over the base, then top with chargrilled antipasti artichokes, serrano ham and a mix of grated mozzarella and parmesan.
Finely chop 150g mushrooms and fry with the shallots (step 5), then continue with the tomato sauce. Spread on the pizza base, then top with 50g sliced mushrooms and plenty of mozzarella.
Watch this video to see how the ultimate margherita pizza comes together
Make the dough up to 2 hours ahead, wrap in cling film and chill. An hour before cooking, take the dough out of the fridge to let it come up to room temperature. Make the sauce up to 48 hours ahead and keep in a sealed container in the fridge.