Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Pizza Margherita
The original Neapolitan pizza: a blistered, chewy base with tomato, mozzarella, and basil, the red, white, and green of Italy.
Italian · medium · serves 4
prep 30 min · cook 15 min
~676 cal · 32g protein · 103g carbs · 14g fat · 5g fiber · 4g sugars · 8g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Pizza Margherita was, by legend, created in Naples in 1889 for Queen Margherita of Savoy, topped in the colours of the new Italian flag: red tomato, white mozzarella, and green basil. Whether or not the story is strictly true, the pizza became an emblem of the city and of Italy itself.
Real Neapolitan pizza is protected by its own rules: a soft, high-hydration dough left to rise slowly, San Marzano tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and a blast in a screaming-hot wood oven for barely ninety seconds, so the rim puffs and chars while the centre stays soft. Simple, but exacting.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
4 cups strong bread flour
1 tsp instant yeast
2 tsp salt
1 can (14 oz) San Marzano tomatoes, crushed
Hard to find? any good tinned plum tomato - a decent tinned plum tomato beats a mediocre tin wearing a San Marzano label, and the name is widely misused; look for whole peeled plum tomatoes packed in juice rather than puree
8 oz fresh mozzarella, torn
2 tbsp grated hard cheese (Parmigiano or Grana)
1 handful fresh basil leaves
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
1
Mix the flour, yeast, salt, and about 1 1/2 cups water into a soft dough, then knead until smooth and let rise slowly until doubled, at least 4 hours.
✎ Chef’s note
A long, slow rise is what gives Neapolitan dough its light, chewy, digestible crumb. Rushing it with lots of yeast makes a denser, breadier base.
2
Stretch each portion of dough by hand into a thin round, leaving a thicker rim.
3
Spread with crushed tomato seasoned with salt, scatter over the grated hard cheese, and dot with torn mozzarella.
✎ Chef’s note
The official Neapolitan Margherita (per the AVPN) carries a light dusting of grated hard cheese over the tomato as well as the mozzarella.
4
Bake in the hottest possible oven (500F/260C or above) until the crust is blistered and charred in spots, about 8 to 12 minutes.
5
Finish with fresh basil and a drizzle of olive oil.
Neapolitan pizza tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Campania. The volcano does much of the farming. Vesuvian soils grow the piennolo cherry tomatoes that are hung in bunches to keep through winter, the plains behind Caserta and Salerno raise the water buffalo whose milk becomes mozzarella, and the Amalfi terraces above the sea are planted with lemons.
🗺️
Italy. Italy is twenty regions of fiercely local cooking, where a sauce or pasta shape can define a single city. Built on superb ingredients treated simply, olive oil, tomatoes, cheese, cured pork, and wheat, it prizes tradition, seasonality, and the sanctity of the shared table.
🌍
Europe. A surprising amount of European cooking is under five hundred years old. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, maize, beans and chocolate all crossed from the Americas after 1492, and none of them was trusted quickly: the potato took most of the eighteenth century to be accepted as food rather than animal fodder across much of the north.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Italy
Pasta alla NormaFried eggplant, tomato, basil, and salted ricotta over pasta, Catania's tribute to its favorite opera.
Tagliatelle al RagùBologna’s slow-simmered meat sauce folded through fresh ribbon pasta, the dish the world calls "bolognese," done right.
Spaghetti alle VongoleSpaghetti tossed with clams, garlic, white wine, and parsley, the Bay of Naples in eight ingredients.
Browse all Italy recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven.
Storing it: Stews and braises keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and often taste better the next day. Reheat gently, adding a splash of water if it has thickened.
Make it a Italy meal
TiramisùDessert
Spaghetti alle VongoleDinner
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Frequently asked questions
What is Pizza Margherita?
The original Neapolitan pizza: a blistered, chewy base with tomato, mozzarella, and basil, the red, white, and green of Italy.
Where does Pizza Margherita come from?
Pizza Margherita is a Italian dish from Campania, Italy.
Can Pizza Margherita be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Pizza Margherita recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Pizza Margherita safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Pizza Margherita take to make?
About 45 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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