Margherita Pizza
Sometimes the simplest of recipes are the best. A basic Margherita Pizza is so easy to make with such few ingredients and the process of making and eating it will surely put a smile on your face.
The dough makes 2 large pizzas or 4 smaller ones. For this recipe I made 2 pizzas.
Margherita Pizza
Ingredients
- 500 g strong flour or half strong flour and half plain flour
- 2 teaspoons salt salt
- 10 g fresh yeast or 5g Instant yeast
- 325 ml tepid water
Instructions
- Mix the flour and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Add the Instant yeast to the flour. If using fresh yeast dissolve it in the tepid water. Pour the tepid water into the flour. Using your fingers mix the ingredients together until all the water and flour have come together. Shape the ingredients into a ball.
- Place the dough on the counter top and knead for 10 minutes. The dough should be soft to the touch but if it is really sticky add a little bit of flour. The above can also be done in a mixer, for about half the time.
- If the dough bounces back to the touch it is ready, if not knead some more.
- Place the dough in a bowl and cover with a tea towel.
- Leave to rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size. Once the dough is ready, knead for a few minutes to knock out the air and then divide the dough up into equal sized balls and leave to rise until doubled in size.
Use your fingers to break up the tomatoes but is you prefer a smoother tomato sauce you can use a stick blender.
Once your dough has doubled in size you are ready to start making your Pizza.
For the Pizza Topping
Pizza dough (from above)
1 x 400g tin plum tomatoes
1 teaspoon oregano
salt
olive oil
200g mozzarella
40g parmesan cheese
A few basil leaves (optional)
Oil and Semolina (this is to coat the bottom of the tray)
Preheat your oven to 250°C
To make the tomato sauce – in a bowl, break up the tomatoes by squashing them with your hands, add the oregano and salt and mix well.
Lightly oil your baking tray and then pour over some semolina so it lightly coats all the tray (you can shake the tray to move the semolina around).
On a lightly floured surface either roll out your dough with a rolling pin or my preferred way is to stretch out the dough buy pushing it down with your fingers and lift the dough up and let it stretch out by using the doughs weight. Place it onto your tray, if needed continue to push the dough out a bit with your fingertips until you get the required size.
Scatter over the mozzarella, parmesan cheese, basil leaves and drizzle a tiny bit of oil over the top.
Cook for about 15 minutes or until it has cooked through. I like to place mine right at the bottom of the oven for just over half the time and then move it up higher for the remaining time as this allows the base to cook.
The cooking time may vary and may only need 7 – 10 minutes so keep an eye on it as everyones ovens are different.
You can add all sorts to your pizza, on the second pizza I made I added gorgonzola and bacon, have a play around and let me know what you did.
As I split the pizza dough in half, the pizzas were quite big so I cooked them on my oven trays.
If you have any tomato sauce left over it can be kept for a few days in the fridge and why not make pasta arrabiata with it 🙂
I hope you enjoy xx