Margherita Pizza Recipe

Food

June 20, 2023

When it comes to simple and delicious pizza recipes, it doesn’t get much better than Margherita Pizza. Our favorite homemade pizza is topped with fresh mozzarella, basil, and a drizzle of sweet and tangy balsamic glaze creating a flavor-bomb pizza that we make on repeat.

Why We Love This Simple & Flavorful Margherita Pizza Recipe:

There are a few variations of Margherita Pizza floating around out there, but what really sets it apart are tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese, and fresh basil. Our Margherita Pizza recipe stays pretty close to that. We used our favorite homemade pizza sauce as a base, then topped it with fresh mozzarella cheese before baking. After pulling it out of the oven, we drizzle it with a sweet and tangy balsamic glaze and sprinkle it liberally with fresh basil. And the end result is a practically perfect pizza that is completely craveable and downright delicious.

Margherita pizza recipe sliced on a ceramic pizza stone.

Ingredients You Need for this Margherita Pizza Recipe:

Pizza Dough– We use our favorite pizza dough recipe for this pizza.
Pizza Sauce– This is the pizza sauce recipe we love.
Fresh Mozzarella– Fresh mozzarella is characteristic of margherita pizza. We got the pre-sliced mozzarella and broke it into pieces. You can also use mozzarella pearls. But don’t try and use part-skim here.
Fresh Basil– Again, fresh basil is an important ingredient. Don’t try to substitute dry basil.
Balsamic Glaze– Balsamic glaze is an incredibly flavorful sauce made by reducing balsamic vinegar. It is sweet and tangy and absolutely delicious.

Ingredients you need for margherita pizza.

How to Make Margherita Pizza:

Make the pizza dough. For a super quick and easy weeknight dinner, you can also use store-bought pizza dough.
Make the pizza sauce. You can use store-bought, but making your own is super easy! And because this pizza has only a handful of ingredients, you want to make sure you’re using the best.
Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. The secret to really good homemade pizza is a screaming hot oven!
Stretch your pizza dough. Create two pizzas. Stretch each piece of dough out nice and thin and place on two separate pizza pans or baking sheets
Top your pizzas. Spread each pizza with sauce. Blot extra moisture from the mozzarella with paper towels. Break the mozzarella into bite sized pieces and spread evenly between the pizzas.
Bake. Bake the pizzas for 12-15 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is melted and bubbly.
Garnish. After removing the pizzas from the oven, immediately top with a drizzle of balsamic glaze and fresh basil.
Serve and enjoy!

A homemade margherita pizza topped with fresh mozzarella, basil, and balsamic drizzle.

Tips & Suggestions:

What cheese should I use for Margherita Pizza?

When making margherita pizza, it has to be fresh mozzarella. You can buy it in a log, or in pearl form. Either one works. Fresh mozzarella has a high moisture content, so don’t go too overboard or you’ll end up with a soggy crust. You want to see plenty of the sauce peeking through.

What is balsamic glaze?

Balsamic glaze isn’t a traditional margherita pizza ingredient, but it’s a delicious one! Balsamic glaze can also be called balsamic reduction, and is made by reducing balsamic vinegar. Sometimes a sweetener is added as well. It is thick and sticky with an intense balsamic flavor. If you choose to skip this ingredient, you can top your pizza with the traditional drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of flaked salt.

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