Neapolitan Margherita Pizza

La storia di questo piatto

Margherita is Naples distilled into a single round: wheat, tomato, milk and basil, the colours of a flag laid across a blistered crust. UNESCO honours the craft behind it, but its truest home is the city itself, where pizza is shared language, daily bread and quiet pride.

Ingredienti

• 250 g Type 00 soft wheat flour for pizza (W 280-320)
• 163 ml Cold water
• 5 g Fine sea salt
• 1 g Fresh brewer's yeast
• 200 g Peeled San Marzano tomatoes
• 125 g Fresh fior di latte cheese
• 6 leaves Fresh DOP basil
• 15 ml Extra virgin olive oil

Preparazione

1. Dissolve 1 g of fresh yeast in 163 ml of cold water, mixing with your fingers until no lumps remain, then pour in 250 g of flour and combine until you have a rough, sticky mass. Let it rest for 5 minutes so the flour absorbs the water and the dough relaxes. Then add 5 g of salt (never before, as it would slow the yeast) and knead for 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic, pulls away from the bowl, and springs back when pressed with a finger.
2. Grease the bowl with 5 ml of oil, place the dough inside and cover with a damp cloth or lid to prevent the surface from drying out. Let it rest at 20-22 °C, away from drafts and direct heat sources, for about 8 hours (with 1 g of fresh yeast, slow maturation is the key): it will be ready when it has more than doubled in volume and shows bubbles on the surface.
3. Once the dough has matured, heat the oven to its maximum (250-300 °C) with the refractory stone inside: a home oven takes 45-60 minutes to reach temperature, so start early and let it keep heating during the next step. Meanwhile, crush the San Marzano tomatoes with clean hands, without reducing them to a purée: they should remain somewhat chunky. Add a pinch of salt and let it rest; the oil does not go into the sauce, it is added raw after baking.
4. Gently turn the dough out onto a floured surface, without deflating it too much, and divide it into 2 balls of about 210 g each. Shape each ball by gently bringing the edges toward the center, then flip it over and round it with your hands until you have a smooth, taut ball. Place them well apart in a lightly floured container, cover, and let them rest (proof) for 45 minutes while the oven continues heating to its maximum (250-300 °C).
5. Take one ball and stretch it with your fingertips starting from the center toward the edges, never with a rolling pin that would press out the air from the rise. Form a disc 28-30 cm in diameter, with a thin center (about 3 mm) and a higher, thicker rim, the cornicione that will puff up in the oven. Place the disc on a well-floured peel (or on parchment paper if baking on a tray) so it slides off easily.
6. Pour the sauce in the center (about 100 g per pizza) and spread it with the back of a spoon, moving in circles from the center outward and stopping two fingers' width from the edge. Tear the fior di latte by hand (well drained, about 60 g per pizza) and distribute it here and there: the pizza must breathe, not drown in cheese.
7. Bake at the highest possible temperature. In a wood-fired oven (450-485 °C) 60-90 seconds is enough. In a home oven at maximum (250-300 °C) with a preheated refractory stone, 6-8 minutes are needed; the 8-minute time given here is for a home oven. The pizza is ready when the base is golden with dark spots and the rim is puffed with some charring. Bake one pizza at a time.
8. Right out of the oven, place torn fresh basil leaves on top (always by hand, never with a knife, which blackens them) and a thread of extra virgin olive oil raw (about 5 ml per pizza). No other salt is needed: it is already in the dough and the sauce. Serve immediately and eat it hot, while the rim is soft inside and crisp outside.