Pizza Margherita with cheese

We adore this recipe for delicious Margherita pizza! We utilize fresh basil, mozzarella, and our favorite homemade no-cook pizza sauce along with our homemade pizza dough.

Pizza Margherita, or Margherita pizza, is easy, fresh, and tasty, just like many Italian foods. Its limited ingredient list means that you must start with the finest ingredients you can find. To prepare it at home, you’ll need the following:

• Pizza dough – We love this bubby homemade pizza dough. It’s easy to make and perfect for home kitchens. Plus, you can whip it up the same day or let it sit overnight for a longer, slower rise. Your favorite store-bought dough will also work.
• San Marzano tomatoes or high-quality whole tomatoes – Unlike American-style pizza sauce, Margherita pizza sauce is as simple as it gets: crush peeled tomatoes (we use canned) and mix with olive oil and salt. It’s fresh and so delicious with the mozzarella and basil.
• Mozzarella cheese – Authentic pizza Margherita has fresh mozzarella. Use fresh, or do what we did in our photos and use shredded mozzarella instead. We love fresh mozzarella on pizza but sometimes find that when cooked in home ovens, it doesn’t melt and brown as quickly and instead releases too much liquid. Shredded mozzarella doesn’t have the same problem.
• Fresh Basil – Fresh basil is crucial for Margherita pizza. I add it before baking and scatter a few extra fresh leaves for serving.

How to Make Margherita Pizza at Home

Start with a great pizza dough — we like this one. At least 30 minutes before you plan to bake your pizza, preheat the oven to 450° Fahrenheit (232°C). If you have one, place a pizza steel or pizza stone into the oven before preheating.

While the oven preheats, you can make the quick, no-cook pizza sauce. For an authentic Margherita pizza sauce, use your hands or a fork to crush whole peeled tomatoes and then stir in a little bit of olive oil and salt. We use canned San Marzano tomatoes because they taste sweet and flavorful.

When your oven is ready, form and stretch your pizza dough into a large round, and then place it onto a pizza peel or pizza baking pan. Add a thin layer of Margherita pizza sauce and top with mozzarella cheese and fresh basil.

Bake until the crust is bubbly and the cheese is beginning to brown. Then, serve with a drizzle of olive oil and fresh basil scattered on top. We hope you love this homemade Margherita pizza recipe as much as we do!