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Pizza
What is the best food in the world? A strong case can be made for pizza: bread, tomato, cheese, fire, and whatever the people you love want on top. It feeds a crowd, it travels to a friend's door, and it has never once made a room sadder. This page is our master profile for it: the short version, the flagship recipe, and the whole family.
The short version
Stretch dough thin. Spread uncooked crushed tomato. Tear on mozzarella, light, not loaded. Bake in the hottest oven you have until the crust blisters. Basil after, never before. That is pizza.
Pizza, in 5 ideas
Max it out, stone or steel inside, 45 minutes of preheat.
Uncooked. It cooks on the pizza.
A thin layer of sauce, torn mozzarella spaced out. Restraint is the recipe.
It is what blisters the bottom.
Heat turns it black and bitter.
The flagship: Margherita Pizza
- 1 lb pizza dough (store bought or homemade)
- 1 (28 oz) can whole San Marzano tomatoes
- 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
- 2 small garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 8 oz fresh mozzarella
- Fresh basil leaves
- Cornmeal, for stretching
- Red pepper flakes (optional)
- Heat the oven as hot as it goes, with a pizza stone or steel inside if you have one. Give it at least 45 minutes. This is the most important step.
- Crush the tomatoes by hand in a bowl. Stir in the olive oil, garlic, and salt. That is the sauce. It needs no cooking.
- On a floured surface dusted with cornmeal, stretch the dough from the center outward, pushing air to the edges for a puffy crust. Aim for about 12 inches.
- Spread a thin layer of sauce, leaving a one inch border. Tear the mozzarella over the top and drizzle with olive oil.
- Launch onto the hot stone or steel and bake 7 to 10 minutes, until the crust is blistered and the cheese is molten with browned spots.
- Top with fresh basil, a pinch of red pepper flakes if you like heat, and serve immediately.