Recipe: Margherita Pizza

Makes 1 ea. 10-12-in.pizza
Named for Italy’s beloved Queen Margherita di Savoia, this tomato, basil, and mozzarella pizza was created in 1889 by pizzaioli Raffaele Esposito of Naples. With colors that commemorated the Italian flag, Margherita Pizza set the standard for pizza across the globe and successfully established Naples as the pizza capitol of the world. Here we share two versions of the Margherita pizza, Popular and Traditional….

Popular
Ingredients

• 1 ea.10-oz. Wood Stone Dough ball
• 2 oz. Wood Stone Pizza Sauce
• 2 oz. fresh mozzarella (we suggest Grande brand), cut into 1/4-in. cubes
• 4-5 ea. basil leaves, cut into chiffonade

Method
Oven Temperature: 570-600 degrees

1. Flour both sides of the dough ball and gently open the ball by hand to the desired thickness. Generally a 10-oz. dough ball will make a 10-12-in. pizza.
2. Ladle the sauce in the center of the pizza shell. Use the bottom of the ladle to spread the sauce outward in a spiral to within a 1⁄2-in. of the edge of the shell.
3. Place the mozzarella pieces evenly over the pizza, up to within 1⁄4-in. of the shell’s edge.
4. Transfer the pizza onto a large peel and land it in the raw landing zone of the oven. Once the pizza begins to color nicely on the side closest to the flame, rotate it 180-degrees and move it one pizza length closer to the flame, into the finishing zone.
5. Once the side closest to the flame colors, and the top and bottom color of the pizza is balanced, remove the pizza from the oven using a large peel. Transfer the pizza to a cooling screen for about 1 minute and garnish with basil, then move it to a pizza board and slice into pieces. Total bake time will be about 4 minutes.

Traditional

For more information on cooking with a Wood Stone oven, see these two important videos: