This Simple Pizza Is Actually One Of The Hardest To Master

Modern pizza as we'd recognize it today has beginnings in Naples in the 17th century, after the tomato was brought to Europe from the Americas, when tomato sauce began to appear on top of dough that was baked off in hot, wood-burning ovens. Pizza was a working-class food, meant to feed hungry laborers in a hurry and for cheap. Neapolitan-style pizzas are simple and unique, with ultra-thin crusts and few ingredients that have been baked in a roaring hot wood-fired oven for no more than 90 seconds. Arguably the most famous Neapolitan pizza is one of the most difficult to master, the Margherita pizza.

A traditional pizza Margherita has only five ingredients: dough, tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, and olive oil. As with a lot of Italian classic dishes, the quality of ingredients is of the utmost importance in a Margherita pizza, as there's nothing fancy in the dish to hide behind or mask the quality or flavor of sub-par ingredients. The simplicity of a Margherita pizza means that the few basic ingredients that are used must be of high quality and delicious taste, like a simple sauce made from pureed San Marzano tomatoes, high-quality, fresh mozzarella, extra-virgin olive oil, and freshly plucked whole basil leaves.

While it may seem like a simple food, the origin of pizza Margherita is linked to Italian royalty. The pizza, which was first served to Queen Margherita who was visiting Naples, uses minimal ingredients, which were originally meant to symbolize the Italian flag, using tomato sauce for red, mozzarella for white, and basil for green. 

One of the biggest obstacles to making pizza Margherita at home is the lack of a dedicated pizza oven that can reach soaring temperatures of over 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Since most home ovens can't get hot enough to rival a traditional wood-fired pizza oven, using either a baking steel or a pizza stone can help conduct more heat directly underneath the dough, leading to a more traditional crust and overall style of pizza. 

Another challenge that comes with making such a simple yet perfect pizza such as Margherita is ensuring that the crust is thin and crispy without over-baking it. Be sure to use 00 flour for the crust, which enables the dough to be firm yet stretchy without tearing, giving it the elastic it needs to be stretched thin. Another pitfall of making Margherita pizza at home is using fresh mozzarella, especially buffalo mozzarella, outside of a wood-fired oven, as the fresh whole milk cheese can change texture when cooked at a high heat for too long (as opposed to the brief 90 seconds in a traditional Neapolitan pizza oven). Instead, use low-moisture whole milk mozzarella when baking pizza at home for a more pleasant taste and texture.