4 pizzas
Margherita Extra
- Hydration
- 65%
- Dough ball
- 250g
- Fermentation
- 49h
- Salt
- 2.8%
- Bake
- 60–90 sec
- Oven
- Wood-fired oven
- Makes
- 4pizzas
- Active time
- 30min
Ingredients
- Dough ball PizzaLovers house dough 65%, cold-fermented 48 h
- 250 g
- Peeled San Marzano tomatoes, crushed by hand
- 70 g
- Mozzarella di bufala campana DOP, torn into pieces drained and patted dry, AVPN 80–100 g
- 85 g
- Fresh basil
- 2.0 g
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 7.0 g
- Sea salt in the sauce
- 1.0 g
Total dough415 g
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Scale up or down — the yeast is recalculated automatically.
Method
- Take the dough balls out of the fridge 2–3 hours before baking and let them sit covered at room temperature.
- Preheat the oven well in advance: 45–60 minutes for a steel in a home oven, 20–30 minutes for a gas oven, longer for a wood oven. Measure the floor with an IR thermometer — you want around 450 °C (840 °F).
- Stretch the ball by hand from the centre outward on a semola-floured surface. Never touch the outer two centimetres.
- Tear the buffalo mozzarella into pieces and let them drain on kitchen paper for at least an hour.
- Place the pieces sparingly – six to eight are enough for one pizza.
- Slide the pizza in and bake for 60–90 seconds. Turn it two or three times so the crust colours evenly.
- Let the pizza rest for a few seconds, add anything meant to go on after the oven, and serve straight away.
Margherita Extra is the same pizza as Margherita, but with mozzarella di bufala DOP. The cheese has more flavour, gives off more liquid and needs a proper drying. Do that and you get the roundest milky flavour of all the classics.
AVPN classic – the EU TSG specification explicitly names Margherita Extra with mozzarella di bufala campana DOP.
Topping order
- Tomato sauce
- Basil
- Buffalo mozzarella in pieces
- Olive oil
Common mistakes
- Bufala straight out of its liquid – the whey ends up on the pizza instead of in the bowl.
- Too many pieces: the cheese runs together and the centre turns soggy.
- Baking too long – buffalo mozzarella loses its flavour when it boils.
Tips
- Add the pieces halfway through the bake if you are using a home oven.
- Save the liquid – it is good in the dough water for a focaccia, but never in pizza dough.
Variations
- Bufalina – bufala without hard cheese and with a little more basil.
- Caprese, with fresh tomato added after baking.
Recalculate the recipe
Want a different number of pizzas, a different ball weight or a different time in the fridge? The calculator is prefilled with this recipe’s values.
Open the calculator with the Margherita Extra settings
Read more
- Neapolitan pizza dough – the full recipe and the why behind it
- Mozzarella di bufala – when it's worth it
- Mozzarella for pizza – choosing, drying and portioning
- Mozzarella water content – a test plan for five cheeses
- Wet pizza – water pooling in the middle
- Stretching – push the gas towards the rim, never out of it
