Pizza Marinara

No cheese. One of the two DOC-protected Neapolitan pizzas. The Marinara predates the Margherita and is arguably the more interesting pizza: the quality of the tomato and the restraint of the seasoning have nowhere to hide.

This recipe makes one pizza ball (24 to 48-hour cold ferment). For the dough, use the Margherita recipe scaled to one ball (280g dough = 220g flour, 136g water, 6g salt, 0.2g fresh yeast), or use a ball already made from a batch.

The Sauce

1. Drain and crush the tomatoes by hand. Season lightly with salt.
2. Slice the garlic thinly.

Stretching and Topping

1. Stretch the room-temperature dough ball to a disc of 28 to 32cm on a semolina-dusted surface.
2. Transfer to a semolina-dusted peel.
3. Spread 70 to 80g of crushed tomato across the surface, leaving the cornicione border clear.
4. Scatter the sliced garlic evenly over the sauce.
5. Crumble the dried oregano over the top with your fingers.
6. Drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil across the pizza.

Baking

High-heat oven (430 to 460°C). Bake for 60 to 90 seconds, rotating every 20 seconds. Pull when the cornicione is leoparded and the tomato has darkened slightly at the edges.

Home oven (250 to 280°C). Bake for 6 to 8 minutes. The tomato will deepen in colour and the garlic will soften and caramelise slightly.

Finishing

Drizzle the remaining tablespoon of olive oil over the pizza after removing from the oven. Add a pinch of flaky salt if the seasoning needs lifting.

A Marinara should taste of tomato and garlic first, oregano second, and olive oil as the background note. If anything is out of balance, the sauce is either under-seasoned or over-applied.

Method

Marinara is restraint. There's no cheese to mask poor tomato or clumsy seasoning, so every element must be distinct and in proportion. The sauce is the whole story — acid, sweetness, and salt working against a thin base of garlic and oregano, lifted by olive oil at the finish. Start by draining your San Marzano tomatoes and crushing them by hand until they're broken but still have some texture; the juice pools away and concentrates flavour. Season lightly with fine sea salt — this is a probe, not the final seasoning. Slice your garlic thinly on a mandoline so the pieces cook evenly and don't char to bitterness.

Take your dough ball cold from the fridge — the cold-fermentation should have run 24 to 48 hours, which develops flavour and extensibility. Stretch it on a semolina-dusted surface to 28–32 cm across, working from the centre outward and letting gravity do the work; the edges will thicken into the cornicione naturally. Transfer to a semolina-dusted peel, then apply 70–80 g of tomato sauce in a thin, even layer, stopping short of the border by about 2 cm. Scatter the garlic over the sauce — distribute it so no two slices sit flush against each other, otherwise they'll cluster and burn. Crumble the oregano between your fingers as you scatter it; the friction releases the volatile oils and spreads the flavour more evenly than sprinkling from a tin.

Drizzle one tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil across the surface in a thin spiral. This isn't decoration — the oil carries fat-soluble compounds and creates the glossy finish that tells you everything's cooked.

In a neapolitan-pizza oven at 430–460°C, bake for 60–90 seconds, rotating every 20 seconds. The cornicione should leopard — dark spots against a blistered pale background — and the sauce at the edges should darken without blackening. In a home oven at 250–280°C, allow 6–8 minutes; the tomato deepens gradually and the garlic softens and caramelises slightly at the rim.

Pull the pizza and immediately drizzle the second tablespoon of olive oil across the surface. Finish with a pinch of flaky sea salt. Taste the first bite before deciding if more salt is needed — under-seasoned sauce is the most common fault, but over-application of sauce masks the tomato entirely.