Classic Margherita
The original pizza — San Marzano tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil, and a perfectly charred Neapolitan crust.
Recipe by the Pizza Planet team · Published
Margherita is the recipe that exposes every shortcut. There's nothing to hide behind — no pepperoni grease, no four cheeses melting into each other. Just dough, San Marzano, mozzarella, basil. Across home ovens, propane and wood-fired alike, the biggest single jump in quality does not come from better tomatoes or better flour — it comes from handling the dough gently enough that the cornicione still holds its air when it reaches the oven. Underwork it. Trust the ferment. If the cornicione comes out flat and unblistered, that is a leoparding problem, not a tomato problem.
Flour: Caputo "00" Chef's Flour (blue bag) (13% protein) — read the review
Dough Formula
| Ingredient | Grams | Baker's % |
|---|---|---|
| Flour (13% protein) | 596 g | 100.0% |
| Water | 388 g | 65.1% |
| Salt | 14.9 g | 2.5% |
| Yeast | 1.2 g | 0.2% |
Makes 4 balls of ≈250 g
Ingredients
Dough
- •4 balls Pizza dough (see formula above)
Sauce
- •400g, 1 can San Marzano tomatoes (whole, canned)
- •3 g Salt
- •5 leaves Fresh basil leaves
Toppings
- •250g Fresh mozzarella (fior di latte) — Drained and torn
- •drizzle Extra virgin olive oil
- •handful Fresh basil — Added after baking
Instructions
- 1
Make the dough: mix per the formula above, then follow the calculator schedule for Neapolitan — 29 h bulk/cold ferment before shaping (hands-on 20 min).
- 2
Crush San Marzano tomatoes by hand into a bowl. Add salt and torn basil. Do not cook the sauce.
💡 Hand-crushed is better than blended — you want texture, not baby food.
- 3
Preheat your pizza oven to 480-510°C (900-950°F) or home oven to max with a baking steel on the top rack.
💡 Preheat for 45-60 min minimum in a home oven.
- 4
Stretch your dough into a 30 cm (12 in) round, leaving a puffy rim (cornicione).
💡 Never use a rolling pin — it kills the air bubbles.
- 5
Spread 40-60 g (2-3 tablespoons) of sauce in a spiral from center outward, leaving a 2.5 cm (1 in) border.
- 6
Tear mozzarella into pieces and distribute evenly. Drizzle with olive oil.
- 7
Launch onto the stone/steel and bake. Pizza oven: 60-90 seconds, rotating every 20s. Home oven: 5-7 minutes, broiler for last 2 min.
- 8
Remove, add fresh basil leaves, slice and serve immediately.
Tips
- →Hands-on time is about 22 minutes; allow the dough its full ferment — see the calculator schedule
- →Use real San Marzano DOP tomatoes — they're sweeter and less acidic
- →Drain mozzarella for 15 min on paper towels to prevent soggy pizza
- →Add basil AFTER baking — it turns black in the oven
- →Less is more — 40-60 g (2-3 tablespoons) of sauce for a 30 cm (12 in) pizza
Shop this bake
Flour
Caputo "00" Chef's Flour (blue bag)
Buy the blue bag if you cold-ferment 24–72 hours. It is the 00 that survives a long ferment, which is also what lets it brown in a home oven.
$19.99· as of Aug 31, 2026
i
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.Affiliate link — we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Check price on Amazon →Read the review →Ingredient
La Valle San Marzano D.O.P. Whole Peeled Tomatoes
The consortium's protected-origin mark: variety and ground audited. The catch is that La Valle publishes no product page, so the mark is read off the tin and the listing, not a maker's record.
$26.59· as of Aug 31, 2026
i
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.Affiliate link — we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Check price on Amazon →Read the buying guide →Ingredient
BelGioioso Fresh Mozzarella Ball
Fresh mozzarella, the wetter style by definition: right for a 60-to-90-second bake, wrong for a home oven, where it weeps onto the base instead of flashing off.
$4.49· as of Aug 31, 2026
i
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.Affiliate link — we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Check price on Amazon →Read the buying guide →Ingredient
SAF Instant Yeast
Instant, so it goes in dry with the flour: no warm-water step means no step at which the yeast can be cooked, which is where an active-dry dough most often dies.
Affiliate link — we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Check price on Amazon →Read the review →Equipment
Original Baking Steel
6.4 mm is the home compromise: enough stored heat to bake two pies back to back, in a slab that will never crack the way a cordierite stone eventually does.
$139.00· as of Aug 31, 2026
i
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.Affiliate link — we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Check price on Amazon →Read the review →Equipment
Skyflame Aluminium Pizza Peel (14 × 16 in)
The single peel to own if you own one: thin enough to launch from, rigid enough to turn and retrieve with, at the size a home oven door takes.
$26.99· as of Aug 31, 2026
i
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.Affiliate link — we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Check price on Amazon →Read the review →
If this goes wrong
Watery pizza from fresh mozzarella
Fresh mozzarella runs 52–60% water against 45–52% for low-moisture, and most of it leaves in the first two minutes of the bake. Tear it and drain it 30–60 minutes ahead, use less of it, and put it on in cubes rather than slices.
No leopard-spotting on the cornicione
Leopard spots are charred bubble tops, not browning, and charring needs a floor around 400 °C (750 °F) plus a well-fermented dough. In a home oven you can approximate it with a steel on the top rack and the grill flat out — true leoparding needs a pizza oven.
Pizza dough won't stretch (springs back)
The gluten is tensioned, not broken. Cover the ball and rest it — 20 minutes if it is already at room temperature, 1–2 hours if it came out of the fridge — then stretch again in stages.
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