4 pizzas
Marinara
- 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 AVPN specifies 70–100 g
- 80 g
- Garlic, thinly sliced about one clove
- 3.0 g
- Dried oregano a pinch
- 0.5 g
- Extra virgin olive oil AVPN 6–8 g
- 7.0 g
- Sea salt in the sauce
- 1.0 g
Total dough342 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.
- Spread the sauce in a spiral from the centre and leave a 2 cm rim untouched.
- Scatter the garlic slices, sprinkle over the oregano and drizzle the olive oil last, just before the oven.
- 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.
Marinara is the litmus test for your dough. With no cheese, nothing hides a pale base or a flat crust, which is why it is the pizza to bake first when you switch to a new flour. Four ingredients, no compromise.
AVPN classic – marinara is named in the disciplinare, with 70–100 g tomato, garlic, oregano and 6–8 g olive oil.
Topping order
- Tomato sauce in a spiral from the centre
- Garlic slices spread evenly
- Oregano
- Olive oil in a spiral
Common mistakes
- Too much garlic – three grams is one clove, not three.
- Burnt oregano: sprinkle it over the sauce, never onto bare dough.
- Too much sauce makes the centre soggy, because there is no cheese to bind the liquid.
Tips
- Crush the tomatoes by hand. A blender smashes the seeds and makes the sauce bitter.
- If all you have is a home oven, cut the sauce to 70 g – otherwise it won't have time to reduce.
Variations
- Marinara with anchovies – lay two fillets on after baking.
- With fresh basil instead of oregano, as several pizzerias in Naples do it.
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 Marinara settings
Read more
- Neapolitan pizza dough – the full recipe and the why behind it
- Tomato sauce – three ingredients and no cooking
- Tomatoes for pizza – San Marzano and the alternatives
- Olive oil for pizza – in the dough, on the pizza or afterwards
