# Pizza Margherita with Italian Dough

> Italian pizza needs **very high heat and a short bake**. Preheat the oven at its highest setting with a tray or stone inside for half an hour, and bake for **6 to 8 minutes only**. Stretch the dough **by hand**, never with a rolling pin.

**Italian Cuisine · 40 min · 4 servings · 420 kcal per serving**

The gap between home pizza and restaurant pizza is not the ingredients — it is the heat. Pizzerias run ovens at 450°C, while a domestic oven tops out around 250. Compensating for that is the whole game.

## Ingredients

- 3 cups — flour
- 1 tsp — instant yeast
- 1.25 cups — warm water
- 1.5 tsp — salt
- 2 tbsp — olive oil
- 1 cup — pizza sauce
- 250 g — mozzarella
- fresh basil
- olive oil to finish

## Method

1. **Knead** — Mix the flour, yeast and salt, add the warm water and oil, and knead for **10 minutes** until the dough is smooth, elastic and no longer sticky.
2. **Slow prove** — Cover and leave for two hours somewhere warm, or **overnight in the fridge** for a deeper flavour. Slow fermentation gives a taste you cannot get quickly.
3. **Preheat properly** — Heat the oven to its **highest setting (250°C or more)** with a metal tray or baking stone inside for a **full half hour**. That hot surface is what crisps the base.
4. **Stretch by hand** — Divide the dough in two and stretch it **with your fingertips from the centre outwards**, leaving the rim slightly thicker. A rolling pin presses the air out of the rim and gives you a flat pizza.
5. **Top lightly** — Spread the sauce thinly, leaving 2 cm at the edge, and scatter over the torn mozzarella. **Keep the quantities down** — too much wets the base and stops it crisping.
6. **Bake** — Slide the pizza onto the hot tray and bake for **6 to 8 minutes** until the rim puffs and blisters brown. Add the basil and olive oil **after** it comes out, not before.

## Tips

- The tray or stone needs a full half hour of preheating — that is what compensates for a domestic oven.
- Stretch by hand, not with a pin — a pin flattens the rim and you lose the puff.
- Go light on sauce and cheese; excess moisture stops the base crisping.
- Basil always after the oven. Inside it burns, blackens and turns bitter.

## FAQ

### Why isn't my pizza base crisp?
The oven was not hot enough or there was no hot surface underneath. Preheat at maximum with a tray or stone inside for half an hour, and use less sauce — excess moisture prevents crisping.

### Why does the dough spring back when I stretch it?
The gluten is tight. Let the divided dough rest 15 minutes before stretching — the rest relaxes the gluten so it stretches without recoiling.

### When do I add the basil?
Right after the oven, while the pizza is still hot. In the oven it burns, blackens and turns bitter — the residual heat is enough to wilt it and release its aroma.

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Source: https://hanakoleah.com/en/italian-cuisine/pizza-margherita-italian-dough
Edited by: Marwa Mohamed
Last updated: 2026-10-29