The Classic Margherita Pizza

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Why would you purchase the most flavorful, best, and rich ingredients for a superlative, wood-fired dough, tantalizing tomato sauce, melted mozzarella, and fresh, bucolic basil to re-create the classic Margherita pizza, fit for a queen, only to land it on an ordinary, ceramic pizza stone for even your high-tech convection oven? Isn’t this recipe destined for a rotating Neapolitan oven, particularly one from Marra Forni? The passion of the Marra brothers, Francesco, Emiliano, and Enzo, would be dashed. Their passion for making the pizza honoring their ancestral queen of a century ago, and drawing a three-generation oven-fabricating family tradition into the twenty-first century with classic tradition married to technical excellence, would be overwhelmed and shamed by such a choice. Their traditional, national pride as the origin of the classic pizza is surpassed, if possible, only by their residential woodburning oven expertise. Perhaps you are unaware of the potential for taking your own family pride of homemade pizza instead of not-quite-on-time delivery (really?) to an unexpected new level of cooking mastery. It’s not just an outdoor oven; it’s a Neapolitan oven of surpassing materials and craftsmanship that make the classic Margherita into a gourmet experience you cannot forget. Do it daily; the Marra Forni can take the heat, repeatedly. Let’s make one. We will not fuss over the dough recipe; you know the basic ingredients: flour, yeast, sugar, kosher salt, olive oil, water. Make your favorite recipe, but be prepared for a wood-fired result that will make you wonder what ever had you salivating from a kitchen-cabinated oven. No, the Marra Forni Neapolitan oven demands a real fire with real hardwood. Load the oven and set the wood on fire. Let it burn, make your dough and let it rise. The tomato sauce will not come complete in a can. If you’re a gardener, what can be better than your own, sweet, succulent crop, or, canned last summer and waiting in your cool, dark pantry for this moment to release its full flavor? In a sauce pan, add the tomato, then a few fresh garlic cloves, chopped, a tablespoon each of fresh thyme and oregano, chopped, a small, diced yellow onion, kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper, and a quarter cup of a fine, Italian red wine; perhaps a Chianti. If you would not drink it, don’t cook it. Simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, for twenty minutes. Check your woodburning brick oven. Marra Forni should be glowing and hot. Your cheesemonger will advise the right mozzarella for your Margherita experience. Slice it; a grater is for amateurs. This is a major ingredient; give its due. Fresh basil leaves. Who needs a knife; they’re beautiful off the stem to pizza. Marra Forni is ready. The dough is formed (tossed, hand-pressed; whatever), the red tomato sauce is aromatic, the basil is green ecstasy and the white cheese is rendered. Put them on the dough, and, ecco;by pizza peel delivery, just a minute or two in a Marra Forni Italian brick oven separates you from the queen’s elegant pleasure. The brothers would be proud; you are, too.