There are two secrets to an excellent Margherita pizza (named
after Italy’s Queen Margherita and visually representative of the
colors in the Italian flag): (1) good tomato sauce (see Pettit’s pizza
sauce) and (2) the best olive oil you can afford, drizzled on the
pizza hot out of the oven. In summer, Pettit adds garden-grown
basil at the end of cooking; in winter, he uses greenhouse basil and
adds it right before the pizza goes into the oven.
Homemade Pizza Dough
1 cup Pizza Sauce
1 ball fresh mozzarella
4 or 5 fresh basil leaves
Good olive oil (to add before cooking)
Excellent olive oil (to finish pizza)
Get the oven as hot as you can get it (most likely, 500°F). If you
have a pizza stone, place it in the cold oven and allow it to preheat
for at least 30 minutes.
Pour some sauce onto the center of the prepared pizza dough
and spread it out with a ladle, taking it close to the edge. You want
just a thin layer of sauce or your pizza will be soggy.
Using your fingers, break apart the fresh mozzarella over the
pizza surface and scatter around whole fresh basil leaves. Drizzle
with the good olive oil.
If using a pizza stone, open the oven and carefully shimmy the
pizza from the pizza peel onto the stone’s surface. If using a