Homemade Pizza Margherita

It doesn't get any better than this - combine a tender and crispy crust with gooey, flavorful cheeses and vegetables fresh from the garden, and you get not only Italy's most traditional pizza dish, but also a fabulous way to celebrate the season's harvest of juicy tomatoes. Made with ingredients reminiscent of the Italian flag, pizza Margherita is a wonderful late summer treat on those days when it's just cool enough to warrant heating up the oven.

Step 1: What you'll need:

For the pizza dough:

- 1 1/2 c. hot water (as hot as you can run it from the tap, NOT BOILING or you will kill the yeast)
- 1 1/2 tsp. dry active yeast
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 tbsp. salt
- 1 tbsp. sugar
- 3 c. all-purpose flour
- oil for greasing the bowl

For the Margherita topping:

- olive oil for brushing
- 4 cloves sliced garlic
- 2 large ripe tomatoes, or similar quantity of small ones, or cherry tomatoes (whatever you have on hand, can purchase at the grocery store, or can pick out of your garden)
- 3/4 c. grated mozzarella
- 1/4 c. grated parmesan
- about 15 large fresh basil leaves

Comments

[JPcreo]

You said it right "no two ovens are the same", but I feel that an oven at 500 F would bake a pie in at least half the time that you mention. My first pizza on the very hot stone bakes in less than four minutes. The second, third and more, do take longer time, as I remove one pie and immediately I lay another on the stone.

Thanks for the depicting recipe and mouthwatering photos. JP

[yachid]

What is the material of you pizza stone?

[clementino.max]

io vado pazzo per la pizza e sono anche bravo a farle, spece quelle fatte con il forno a legna, in calabria la pizza al forno a legna...

[skyisblu]

Grazie! Purtroppo, non ci sono molti forni a legna in Canada. Sono sicuro che avrebbe fatto la differenza nel gusto di una buona pizza.

PS: Il mio ragazzo mi sta aiutando a tradurre, e il nostro italiano è molto semplice. Google Translate è aiutare, anche. :)

[TheDanzel]

Do NOT use hot water!!! The activity of the yeast is highest at about 40° C. Higher temperatures will slow down the process and at 78°C allmost every yeast dies.
You can't run a marathon in death valley ;)

[olistr]

http://www.lostgirlsworld.com/2010/03/death-valley-marathon/

some people can

[skyisblu]

I only wrote that because I have always had success with my dough rising following this recipe and I wanted to make the instructions as user-friendly(no thermometre necessary) as possible. It is possible this is not optimal yeast-activating temperature, but the result is still a tender and risen crust. I also don't want to create a pizza dough monster with too much rising crust! Thanks for the advice, though.

[t.rohner]

Hello

What a nice instructable. The pictures are wonderful. Kudos to you.

When i read about the yeast and the "hot as it comes out the tap" water, i was a little shocked...
You don't need a thermometer, tepid, around body temperature always works.
And if you don't want the dough to rise too much, take less yeast. (Instead of adding much and killing part of it ;-)

I make most doughs with a very small amount of yeast, then let it rise for 6 hours plus minus. These doughs develop a wonderful flavour during the long rise.

But the best doughs i ever had, were made with the "hydration rest, wet kneading, 3 days rise in the fridge" method. (I tried yeast and sourdough versions, both are killer)

I read about this method here:
http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm
It's a long and thorough article, almost scientific.

The dough came out with a wonderful flavour and texture. It was also very easy to form. (Just by hand, without a rolling pin.)

Maybe you are interested in my take on a Margherita, or my latest Pizza Salmone:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Flammkuchen-the-other-type-of-pizza/#step7

[TheDanzel]

Do NOT use hot water!!! The activity of the yeast is highest at about 40° C. Higher temperatures will slow down the process and at 78°C allmost every yeast dies.
You can't run a marathon in death valley ;)

[instructablesrestaurant]

nice, with the twist of garlic.

[ARJOON]

for step 2 NO5 i've put ,mine on my computer screen

[skyisblu]

I didn't even think of that one! Nice choice of a warm place, but must've required a little balancing!

[ARJOON]

it was well balanced because it was on a very old view sonic sreen

[ElvenChild]

everybody rate this 5 and she might give you some

[skyisblu]

Margherita Pizza? Sure - if I could figure out a way to send everyone fresh pizza, the world would probably be a happier place, no?

[ElvenChild]

food

[craig3]

The doh is rising right now, I'm a pretty amateur chef, so lets hope this turns out, even ALRIGHT a little bit haha. I'm iffy about the dough rising, something about me making it doesnt add up right, we shall see soon enough i guess, right?

[seamster]

Your main intro photo is one of the best I've seen for a food instructable. Very, very appealing. Nice work!

[skyisblu]

Thank you so much!

[mman1506]

i just finished eating it and it was great. thats my 5 stars and a vote

[skyisblu]

Glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for the vote!

[t.rohner]

Very nice presentation. This sure looks tasty. Using ripe uncooked tomatoes is really important. I just made some on sunday. If you're interested how i do it, have a look into my Flammkuchen Instructable. After a lot of tweaking, i think my Margheritas are spot on.

[drichard58]

This is really great! We do this but because we're lazy :) we use pre-made pizza dough. The key things here are to use fresh home-grown tomatoes (I might offend here, but there is no comparison between home-grown and store bought tomatoes) and really fresh basil (again, home grown is best).

I have heard some people vary this with different flavors of basil - Thai basil to give it an Asian twist, lemon basil to give it a lemony zip...

[skyisblu]

I totally agree with you - fresh garden tomatoes are definitely the key ingredient to this pizza, although I do believe you can get same results with tomatoes bought at a farmer's market. As long as you don't buy the grocery store hot house tomatoes, all pink and pasty inside, you will get great results.

[Delfairen]

That looks great and a nice thorough 'ible. Guess this is whats for lunch tomorrow.

[skyisblu]

Mmmm...can I come over for lunch?

[zascecs]

Great instructable, this is one of the best kinds of pizzas, also great pics

[skyisblu]

Thanks!

[arochester]

It says: "2. Mix the mozzarella and cheddar together. Set them aside for now." Where does the cheddar come in? It's not mentioned in the ingredients.

Mozzerella and parmesan?

[skyisblu]

Yup, it's mozzarella and parmesan. Thanks for pointing that out - it's all fixed now. What can I say? I have cheese on the brain!