Sometimes it pays to be creative and other times it pays to just play the hits. You’ll find a balanced mixture of both here at Flavor Bible. We’ll always have plenty of experimentation – of which we’ll share the good ones 😉 – and then we will also take the time to pay homage to the classics. Some things you just don’t tinker with – at least not too much. Today we bring you the 4th iteration in the Flavor Bible Pizza Series, Pizza Margherita… cast iron style!
What Makes Pizza Margherita Special?
You may notice the key ingredients – tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil – are red, white, and green. It’s no accident that these are the colors of the Italian flag. Or is it?
An often recounted story holds that on June 11, 1889, to honor the Queen consort of Italy, Margherita of Savoy, the Neapolitan pizzamaker Raffaele Esposito created the “Pizza Margherita”, a pizza garnished with tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil, to represent the national colors of Italy as on the Flag of Italy. It seems this is more legend than fact as pizzas with this same trio of toppings were available in Naples as much as a century earlier.
Clearly, the history is not so clear 😀 so let’s just make pizza. We can all agree on that.
Pizza Margherita: Preparation
This will be a welcome revelation to some: there aren’t a lot of ingredients at play here. For those of you that thrive on simplicity, you’ve come to the right place. For starters you will want to make the pizza sauce ahead of time. We have a tried and true recipe to make it yourself (hint: follow one of the links). Store it in the fridge until ready to use.
Next, gather up the goods. We’ve mentioned this in previous posts… you can make the dough yourself or pick up a quality dough ball from nearly any local pizzeria. We choose the latter for two reasons. First, they make excellent pies and have been doing so for years. Second, it’s just simpler. Call it lazy or call it efficiency, we think you know on which side of the fence we stand 🙂
Nevertheless, set that dough ball on the countertop and let it come to room temperature.
Prep the ingredients according to the instructions. If you have San Marzano tomatoes, fantastic. If you don’t, just lie to your guests if they ask!
Go ahead and preheat the oven to 500°F. On a cutting board or other clean flat surface scatter some flour and get that room temperature dough ball out. Stretch the dough into a circle and to the size of your pan (obviously, cast iron in this instance but not required).
Coat the cast iron pan with the oil, carefully transfer the stretched dough to your pan, and stretch it out to the sides.
Cooking the Pizza
Place pan on the stovetop over medium heat for 3 – 5 minutes. This will help the crust set. Layer on the sauce and mozzarella slices.
Cook for 10 minutes in the oven or until mozzarella begins to melt. Remove and top with tomato slices. Cook 5 additional minutes.
Remove the pizza from the oven. Top with torn basil and parmesan cheese. Let cool for 5 minutes. Remove to a cutting board and slice into 4 – 8 equal slices (we made a small so we cut it into quarters). Congratulations, you are now a master pizzaiolo. Buon appetito!
Equipment: Cast Iron Pizza Margherita
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We love our Lodge Cast Iron skillet because it can do just about everything including this fantastic pizza margherita. You should get one so you can love it as much as we do. If you take care of it then it will become a family heirloom. Trust us! Oh yeah, you’ll need a pizza wheel, too 😀
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Cast Iron Pizza Margherita
Equipment
- Cast Iron Pan
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp All-Purpose Flour, for dusting
- 1 small Dough Ball Purchased from local pizza place (or store)
- ½ cup Homemade Pizza Sauce See link in post.
- 6 oz Fresh Mozzarella, sliced thin
- 1 Medium Tomato, sliced thin and halved
- 1 tbsp Fresh Parmesan Cheese, grated
- 6-8 Basil Leaves, torn
Instructions
- Make the pizza sauce (see link in post).
- Preheat oven to 500°F.
- Spread some flour on a cutting board, Stretch room temperature dough to the diameter and shape of your cooking pan (cast iron preferred for this recipe).
- Coat the cast iron pan with the olive oil. Place the dough in the pan and stretch to the edges.
- Place pan on the stovetop over medium heat for 3 – 5 minutes. This will help the crust set. Layer on the sauce and mozzarella slices.
- Cook for 10 minutes in the oven or until mozzarella begins to melt. Remove and top with tomato slices. Cook 5 additional minutes.
- Remove the pizza from the oven. Top with torn basil and parmesan cheese. Let cool for 5 minutes. Remove to a cutting board and slice into 4 – 8 equal slices (we made a small so we cut it into quarters).
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