Pizza Margherita

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Pizza Margherita is the most famous pizza in the world and the definitive expression of pizza napoletana — tomato, mozzarella, basil, and olive oil on a hand-stretched Neapolitan dough base. The legend attributes its creation to Raffaele Esposito of Pizzeria Brandi in June 1889, who made three pizzas for Queen Margherita of Savoy during a royal visit to Naples: the pizza with tomato, mozzarella, and basil — representing the Italian flag's red, white, and green — was the queen's favourite, and Esposito named it in her honour. Whether the story is precisely true (pizzas with these ingredients existed before 1889), the name and the canonical combination have been inseparable ever since. The technique is the pizza napoletana technique in its purest form: the stretched dough is topped with hand-crushed San Marzano tomatoes (DOP, or similar quality pomodorini), sliced or torn fior di latte mozzarella (or, for the Margherita Extra, mozzarella di bufala campana DOP), a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, and 4-5 fresh basil leaves placed on top after baking (or, in some traditions, before baking, where they char slightly and perfume the pizza). The pizza bakes for 60-90 seconds in the 485°C oven. The Margherita is the test of a pizzaiolo's skill: with only four toppings plus dough, there is nowhere to hide. The dough must be perfectly fermented, the stretching must be precise, the topping must be balanced (not too much tomato, not too much cheese), and the baking must be exact. A perfect Margherita is one of the great simple compositions in food: the sweetness of San Marzano tomato, the milky richness of mozzarella, the perfume of basil, the fruitiness of olive oil, and the slightly charred, smoky, bread-like base.

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