Active Time
35 min
Total Time
1 3/4 hr (includes rising time)
The secret to a great pizza Margherita is to use the best ingredients you can find—and to approach them with restraint. (Just because a little cheese is good doesn't mean a lot will be better!) We always start with our all-time favorite pizza dough, adapted from chef Chris Bianco, of Pizzeria Bianco, in Phoenix. This slightly wet dough, in conjunction with a hot pizza stone, produces a crisp yet chewy crust, the perfect canvas for bright homemade tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and verdant basil leaves.
Ingredients
Makes 6 servings
For dough:
For topping:
Preparation
Make dough:
Step 1
Stir together yeast, 1 tablespoon flour, and 1/4 cup warm water in a large bowl and let stand until surface appears creamy, about 5 minutes. (If mixture doesn't appear creamy, discard and start over with new yeast.)
Step 2
Add 1 1/4 cups flour, remaining 1/2 cup water, salt, and oil and stir until smooth. Stir in enough flour (1/4 to 1/3 cup) for dough to begin to pull away from side of bowl. (Dough will be slightly wet.)
Step 3
Knead on a floured surface, lightly reflouring when dough becomes too sticky, until smooth, soft, and elastic, about 8 minutes. Form into a ball, put in a bowl, and dust with flour. Cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel (not terry cloth) and let rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled, about 1 1/4 hours.
Make tomato sauce while dough rises:
Step 4
Pulse tomatoes with juice in a blender briefly to make a chunky purée.
Step 5
Cook garlic in oil in a small heavy saucepan over medium-low heat until fragrant and pale golden, about 2 minutes. Add tomato purée, basil, sugar, and 1/8 teaspoon salt and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until thickened and reduced to about 3/4 cup, about 40 minutes. Season with salt and cool.
Heat pizza stone while dough rises:
Step 6
At least 45 minutes before baking pizza, put stone on oven rack in lower third of electric oven (or on floor of gas oven) and preheat oven to 500°F.
Shape dough:
Step 7
Do not punch down. Dust dough with flour, then transfer to a parchment-lined pizza peel or large baking sheet. Pat out dough evenly with your fingers and stretch into a 14-inch round, reflouring fingers if necessary.
Assemble pizza:
Step 8
Spread sauce over dough, leaving a 1-inch border (there may be some sauce left over). Arrange cheese on top, leaving a 2- to 3-inch border.
Step 9
Slide pizza on parchment onto pizza stone. Bake until dough is crisp and browned and cheese is golden and bubbling in spots, 13 to 16 minutes. Using peel or baking sheet, transfer pizza to a cutting board. Cool 5 minutes. Sprinkle with some basil leaves before slicing.
•Dough can be allowed to rise slowly in the refrigerator (instead of in a warm place) for 1 day. Bring to room temperature before shaping.
•Tomato sauce can be made 5 days ahead and chilled.
Leave a Review
Reviews (39)
Back to TopThis is a success every single time. The sauce is simple, yet flavorful. Beginners: don't be discouraged by the number of steps; they're quick and easy. I would highly recommend using the best canned tomatoes you can find, such as San Marzano, as the sauce flavor is very tomato-forward. I do skip pureeing the tomatoes and just put them directly into the pan without blending them. Instead, I use a potato masher in the pan (fewer things to clean). I actually use this sauce as a base for other tomato sauces for some recipes and adjust the amounts as needed. Highly recommend!
HVGoddess
New Haven, CT
1/8/2022
The sauce is scrumptious, and I thought the dough was great, too. I did not have the same issues as some here with the dough or the parchment - it was certainly sticky but not impossible. (I did cut the paper into a circle, that may have helped because the edges weren't exposed to the heat.) Having it in that super hot oven did turn my (new-ish) pizza stone dark brown, but it was worth it.
kklabracke
Oconomowoc, WI
6/26/2020
I did not make this but I want to share my secret for the best crust you ever had. Make your home made crust with your favorite recipe, except do not add sugar, rather, add 2 tsp of honey to the dough when mixing. Yeast feeds on the honey. Not enough honey to make the crust sweet, just enough to give it a depth and new dimension of flavor.
redhatchris
Rhode Island
9/28/2019
I didn’t make the dough, but made the Margherita sauce. It is my go-to recipe for pizza sauce! We love it!!
jaye0126
Cincinnati, OH
6/6/2018
its yummy play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mobiideas.ramadanrecipes Use it for making this round up red hot spicy yummy and will definitely taste like indian.
farhan12312
Pakistan
5/24/2017
This was outstanding and I used store bought pizza dough. I did not have a pizza stone but used a cast iron frying pan inverted to cook the dough on. A trick I learned on David Lebovitz's website. Very simple to make and as good as any margharita pizza I have had in a restaurant.
maryfairy
Canada
4/30/2017
Super pizza! I did the overnight rise in the fridge version of the crust, and it worked like a charm. Used authentic Marzano tomatoes (Cento) and sauce was sublime! What a difference! DON'T SKIP THE PARCHMENT, but make sure you are using a good quality paper. It will burn, but to get the crispy but chewy crust you need to assemble it on the paper, and slide it on to the already screaming hot stone. While the pizza is still warm, the paper should slide right out from under the pie.
Anonymous
Savannah, GA
1/10/2017
Making pizza from scratch is pretty time-consuming but the result is totally worth it. My only issue was that my crust came out fluffy and chewy rather than thin and crispy, but I think that was due to the dough rising too much (my kitchen got very warm with the oven preheating so after 1 hour the dough ball had almost quadrupled) and not rolling it out thin enough. The dough wasn't bad by any means so still 4 forks, but I'll be excited to try this again with a more authentic crispy Italian crust!
graciet
8/6/2014
I've made the sauce a number of times now. I find it easy and delicious. Might be missing a little something (so only 3 forks) but this is my go-to sauce now.
jmcc131
Ottawa, Ontario CANADA
4/12/2013
I love this recipe. I've made it enough times that I've looked into ways of speeding it up, and it works great to do a double batch and freeze half. Right after the kneading, coat half the dough lightly with olive oil then wrap it in plastic wrap, put it in a ziploc, and freeze it. Half the sauce goes in a tupperware bowl in the freezer. Not sure how long they'd keep, since it's only ever been a few days before I want to make the pizza again. Move dough and sauce to the fridge 24 hours before you plan to bake, move the dough to an oiled, covered bowl to warm and rise for about an hour and a half. I've always slid both pizza and parchment onto the stone and cooked for about 10-11 minutes (my oven runs a bit hotter than 500 when it's set to 500.) The parchment does end up burned but that's not a problem.
SamWibatt
10/1/2011
This pizza is DELISH!! I pretty much followed the recipe exactly with a few small changes. For the crust, since I didn't have any unbleached flour, I just used regular bleached all-purpose flour, which turned out fine. For the sauce, I added a bit of chopped onion, a few shakes of dry oregano, and some extra garlic, since a few reviewers said the sauce was rather bland. Also, the recipe doesn't specify whether or not the basil leaves should be chopped or just put in whole, but I chopped mine for the sauce and to sprinkle on top and it tasted great! As for the issue of transferring the pizza onto the stone, my method involved covering the bottom of a round cookie sheet with cornmeal without using any parchment paper. I spread my dough and assembled the pizza on the cornmeal covered cookie sheet, then carefully slid the pizza onto the preheated pizza stone with absolutely no problem. Try using cornmeal -- it really works!
bas218
Pittsburgh
5/25/2011
This pizza was DELISH! I used half wheat flour and it was still great.
Katycello
3/16/2011
Amazing! I have just started experementing with Pizza and have been disapointed a few times, but this recipe was exceptional. My boyfriend even commented on how good it was!
lanaleigh143
Toluca Lake, CA
1/16/2011
I'm giving this 4 forks just for the crust bc it was exactly what I was looking for (super thin crust/ brick oven style) using a pizza stone. As for the rest of the recipe... I think I could make a more flavorful sauce, but this is good and pretty quick. Here is my dough notes- If it's tacky and wet add more flour. I had to add almost a cup more and then a whole bunch more flour and corn meal when rolling out the dough. (It was a humid, cold, day.) I also held my oven at 550. It only takes about 6-8 min. I would NOT leave it in for 13-16 or the toppings burn. I also brushed the crust with olive oil and garlic salt when it came out. Oh! and handling one big pizza is challenging. I made 2 slightly smaller pizzas and built the pizza on the back of a cookie sheet so I could gently slide it off in 1 swoop.
DerecksWifey
San Antonio, TX
1/2/2011
excellent pizza with an amazing dough and the best tomato sauce for pizza ive ever made. i added pepperoni and it was amazing. fantastic recipe to have.
coconib
1/1/2011
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