Homemade margarita pizza, I do not think anyone can resist. Making a super delicious homemade pizza with tomato passata, basil, cheese, and garlic is easier than you think. You'll want to make this recipe over and over again.
When making homemade margarita pizza, the first and most important step is to prepare a solid margarita dough, the rest of the work is up to your imagination and taste. Now let us take a look at how to make the dough for a good pizza.
Ingredients for Homemade Pizza Dough Recipe
The best homemade Margherita pizza starts with homemade pizza dough. Making homemade pizza dough can be difficult at first. You can only buy frozen pizza dough, but if you prefer to make the dough yourself, you have the advantage of being able to make the dough to your liking.
- 2½ cups (300 g) unbleached all-purpose flour: unbleached all-purpose flour: It is best to use unbleached all-purpose white flour for pizza crust. Bleaching the flour removes some of the protein, which reduces the amount of water the flour can absorb.
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar: sugar increases the activity of yeast and softens the dough.
- ½ teaspoon active dry yeast: Instant yeast makes the job faster.
- ¾ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 7 ounces (105°F to 115°F) warm water
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil: Extra virgin olive oil adds a wonderful flavor to the dough. Remember to brush olive oil on the dough before adding the ingredients to prevent the crust from having a wet taste.
- Semolina and all-purpose flour: Use flour to dust the pizza pan; It gives the pizza crust a little extra flavor and crunch.
How to Make Homemade Pizza Dough
In a medium bowl, mix flour, sugar, yeast, and salt. Add warm water and olive oil and stir with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together.
Place the dough on a well-floured work surface and knead for three minutes. It should come together quickly and begin to become sticky. Dust the dough with flour if needed - it should be slightly sticky, but not sticking to your work surface. After a while, the stickiness of the dough should decrease and it should be smooth and slightly elastic. Lightly grease a large mixing bowl with olive oil and pour the dough into the bowl.
Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let the dough rise in a warm, dry place in your kitchen for 2 hours or until the dough has doubled in size. You will need to be a little patient with this step if you want to get a nice pizza dough for the best homemade margarita pizza. Make sure your dough is well-rested.
Tip: If your kitchen is very cold, you can warm up the container a little before you put the dough in. To do this, preheat your oven a little and leave the dough in the container. When your bowl is warmer than the surrounding area, you can put the dough in. The type of container you use is important! You should use a heat-resistant container to avoid a possible accident.
Ingredients for Pizza Sauce Recipe
- 1cup pureed or crushed canned tomatoes (or Gourmet212's Tomato Passata)
- 2-3fresh garlic cloves
- 1teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2-3large pinches of kosher salt
- ½ teaspoondried oregano or dried basil
- ¼teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
How to Make Easy Pizza Sauce
The best thing about a homemade margarita pizza is that you can make the pizza sauce just the way you like it. You can increase the garlic or the spices. You can use thyme or basil. This is your margarita pizza.
Cut the garlic into several coarse pieces. Place the garlic, tomato passata, olive oil, spices, and kosher salt in a blender. Blend until everything is well mixed. If the sauce becomes too thick, you can store it in the refrigerator for up to seven days.
Tips for Homemade Margherita Pizza Success
Kneading the dough with lukewarm water will speed up the fermentation.
Use semolina flour to dust homemade margarita pizza dough. Semolina has a higher burning point than regular flour and ensures that the dough does not stick to the crust while you put the pizza in the oven.
It's important to make sure your active dry yeast is truly alive and well. Check your expiration date. If you have doubts about the function of your yeast, you can dissolve it in warm water to activate it. This way it will dissolve faster in the dough.
If you prepare the dough in advance, let it rest for two hours. Then divide it in half, wrap each piece of dough well in plastic wrap, and place it in a freezer-safe bag. The dough can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours or frozen for up to 3 months. Let the dough rest outside the refrigerator in a bowl with olive oil until it reaches room temperature.
Ingredients for Homemade Margherita Pizza Recipe
For a delicious homemade margarita pizza, all you need besides the pizza dough and pizza sauce is grated cheese or fresh mozzarella, a few basil leaves, and Parmesan cheese to sprinkle on your pizza when it comes out of the oven.
You can also use pizza steel (or stone) for a better experience, but it's not essential.
Although there is no exact measurement for the cheese here, I recommend using at least ¾ cup of shredded cheese or 2-3 ounces of fresh mozzarella cheese. There's nothing better than a homemade margarita pizza with lots of cheese.
How to Make Homemade Margherita Pizza
Before rolling out the homemade margarita pizza dough, place the pizza steel (or stone) on the second to top rack of your oven (about 8 inches from the broiler element) and preheat the oven and steel (or stone) to no more than 550°F (285°C) for less than 1 hour.
Sprinkle the work surface on which you will roll out the pizza dough with a tablespoon of semolina and all-purpose flour. Gently stretch a ball of pizza dough with both hands into a circle about 10 inches across (do not worry if it's not quite even). If the dough shrinks or is too elastic, let it rest for another five minutes. The edges of the dough can be a little thicker, but make sure the center of the dough is thin (if you hold it up, you should be able to see some light through it). Carefully transfer the dough to a pizza stone or a baking sheet sprinkled with semolina and flour.
Lightly drizzle (with your fingertips) olive oil (about a teaspoon) over the dough. Using a large spoon, add about ½ cup of tomato sauce to the pizza dough, leaving a ½ to ¾ inch border on all sides. Add an equal amount of the cheese you will be using to the pizza sauce. Add the basil leaves. At this point, I sometimes stretch the edges of the dough a little to thin it out further. Slide the pizza out of the crust and onto the slightly heated baking stone. Bake for 7 . Up to 8 minutes, or until the crust is golden, the cheese is bubbling and caramelizing, and the edges of the pizza are golden brown. If the color of the edges of your homemade margarita pizza changes quickly, you can lower the oven temperature a bit.
What is Margherita Pizza?
Margarita pizza was invented in the 1800s. The colors of tomato passata, basil, and mozzarella symbolize the Italian flag. According to one belief, the name comes from the Queen of Savoy, Margherita.
Invented in the 1800s, Margherita pizza features the colors of the Italian flag: red from the tomato sauce, white from the mozzarella, a and green from the basil. Popular belief holds that Margherita is descended from Queen Margherita of Savoy, an Italian queen in the 1800s. Queen Margherita at the time wanted pizza (pizza was the food of poor people in Italy at the time). While presenting the pizza to the queen, the master gets excited when asked his name and pronounces the queen's name. It is rumored that after the queen mentioned Pizza Margherita in her thank you note, her name remained that way and survived until today.
Since then, many families in Italy and around the world make their homemade margarita pizza.
