A Margherita from a Naples wood-fired oven bakes at around 905°F (485°C) in 60 to 90 seconds. A kitchen oven tops out near 550°F and takes about 7 minutes, so the same dough and the same assembly don’t give the same pizza. Ken Forkish’s home-oven Margherita, from The Elements of Pizza, makes three changes to get close: a wetter dough, a broiler finish, and mozzarella that goes on partway through the bake. It’s the pizza he says he makes at home more than any other.
His version comes out crisper than a true Neapolitan Margherita, especially in the middle, and he doesn’t apologize for it. You’ll need a steel or stone and an oven with a broiler.
The dough
The dough is Forkish’s 24- to 48-hour refrigerated dough: mix it the evening before, and it’s ready the next evening. The full method, timeline and scaling are in the overnight pizza dough recipe.
| Ingredient | Grams | Baker’s % |
|---|---|---|
| Water at 90 to 95°F (32 to 35°C) | 350 | 70% |
| Fine sea salt | 13 | 2.6% |
| Instant yeast | 1.5 | 0.3% |
| White flour, preferably 00 | 500 | 100% |
| Dough | 864.5 |
This makes three balls of about 288 g, one per 12-inch pizza. Forkish notes that the AVPN’s rules at the time of his 2016 book allowed 180 to 250 g dough balls for a Margherita (the current AVPN text gives 200 to 280 g), which make small pizzas, and that some Naples pizzerias, Starita among them, use 260 to 270 g; his larger size suits home baking.
Why 70% water. Forkish matches the dough’s water to the oven. The longer a pizza bakes, the more water its crust loses, so a dough made to Naples proportions comes out dry and crisp all the way through at home. In his 2016 book he gives the AVPN dough as 55 to 58% water; the AVPN’s current published recipe, 1 liter of water to 1.6 to 1.8 kg of flour, works out to about 56 to 63%. At 70%, a home-oven crust stays delicate and soft. See the hydration guide for more.
Flour. Forkish prefers 00 flour. Caputo’s blue Pizzeria bag (12.5% protein) and red Chef’s Flour (13%) both work; the red bag is the stronger, more forgiving choice for a long ferment. The Caputo comparison has the full specifications.
The sauce
Forkish’s basic sauce is two ingredients and takes about two minutes:
- One 28-ounce (800 g) can of whole peeled tomatoes
- 8 g (1½ teaspoons) fine sea salt
Pass the tomatoes through a food mill with a large-hole die, or pulse them very, very briefly on the blender’s lowest speed, and stir in the salt. It isn’t cooked. It makes about 750 g, which Forkish says is enough for seven 12-inch pizzas, and keeps for a week in the fridge. Let it come to room temperature before you use it. One of Tony Gemignani’s ten commandments is never to put cold sauce on pizza dough; he says it can leave the crust undercooked.
Which tomatoes. Genuine San Marzano tomatoes carry the DOP mark on the can, and Forkish points out that they are only a small part of southern Italy’s tomato harvest: good whole peeled tomatoes from around Naples needn’t be San Marzanos. He likes Bianco DiNapoli, an American brand; it is not a San Marzano. See the best canned tomatoes for pizza for more.
The cheese
Forkish’s Margherita takes fresh whole-milk mozzarella, either brine-packed fior di latte (cow’s milk) or mozzarella di bufala, sliced into short strips about ½ inch thick, plus a little grated Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano underneath.
The cheese is why the bake has two stages. Forkish explains that in a home oven the mozzarella spends long enough above its melting point to turn liquid; in a wood-fired oven it keeps much of its shape. Adding it about 4 minutes in keeps it close to how it looks in Naples. Bufala holds more water than fior di latte and can make a watery pizza, so squeeze it gently and pat it dry before it goes on. See low-moisture vs. fresh mozzarella for the differences.
Make it
Makes three 12-inch pizzas. Active time about 30 minutes across two days. Elapsed time at least 20 hours, most of it with the dough in the fridge. Bake about 7 minutes per pizza.
Per pizza:
- 1 dough ball (about 288 g)
- 60 to 80 g sauce
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- 10 to 15 g grated Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano
- 80 to 100 g fior di latte or mozzarella di bufala, in short strips about ½ inch thick
- 3 to 5 basil leaves
Equipment: a baking steel or pizza stone, a pizza peel, and tongs. Forkish tested all his recipes on a steel; a stone works too.
- The evening before: make the dough and refrigerate the balls (see the overnight dough).
- Warm up. Take the dough balls out 60 to 90 minutes before baking. Put the steel on an upper rack, no more than 8 inches below the broiler, and preheat the oven at 550°F (290°C) for 45 minutes. Make the sauce.
- Set up. Flour about 2 feet of counter and dust the peel lightly with flour. Have the sauce, oil, cheeses and basil to hand. Switch the oven to broil 10 minutes before the first pizza goes in.
- Shape. Flip a dough ball in the flour to coat both sides, then stretch it into a 12-inch disk, leaving the rim alone. Move it to the peel and run your hands around the edge to relax it and work out the kinks.
- Sauce. Spread 60 to 80 g of sauce to within ½ inch of the edge with the back of a spoon.
- First bake, about 4 minutes. Turn off the broiler, slide the pizza onto the steel, close the door and set the oven to bake at 550°F. Bake until the rim is just starting to turn golden.
- Add the cheese. Pull the pizza onto a plate with tongs. Drizzle a spoonful of olive oil over it, sprinkle with the grated cheese, and lay the mozzarella and basil evenly on top. Slide it back onto the steel for 1 to 2 minutes.
- Broil, about 2 minutes. Switch to broil and bake until the cheese is softly melted and the crust is golden, with spots of brown and a few small spots of char. Check after 1 minute; the broiler works fast.
- Serve. Slide it onto a plate, drizzle with a little olive oil, and eat it whole or cut in half.
Between pizzas, pull the rack out and carefully wipe the burned flour off the steel with an oven mitt, then broil for a few minutes to reheat it while you shape the next pizza. One caution: some ovens trip a safety cutout if you switch straight from a long broil to bake. Forkish’s did, so he switches back to bake only after the door has been open to load the pizza.
Basil, slicing and timing
Basil traditionally goes on before baking, but Franco Pepe at Pepe in Grani adds it after, and Forkish likes it both ways. He also suggests eating this pizza whole or cut in half rather than sliced like an American pie, so the soft middle ends up on your fork instead of the board. Don’t let it sit: Forkish gives fresh mozzarella about a 10-minute window after the pizza comes out before it starts to firm up and lose its stretch.
How it compares with the Pizza Planner
The Pizza Planner’s Neapolitan-style route for a home oven with a steel uses the same 70% water and 0.3% instant yeast, with an overnight schedule, and bakes at a 500 to 550°F setting for 6 to 10 minutes after a 45 to 60 minute preheat. Forkish’s 7 minutes and 45-minute preheat fit inside those windows. Two things differ: the Planner uses 3% salt rather than 2.6%, and sizes a 12-inch pizza at 250 g of dough rather than 288 g.
For toppings, the Pizza Calculator’s starting range for a 12-inch Neapolitan-style pizza is about 58 to 88 g of sauce and 73 to 109 g of cheese. Forkish’s 60 to 80 g of sauce and 80 to 100 g of mozzarella fall inside it.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Why 70% hydration when Naples uses less?
- Because the bake is so much longer. Forkish explains that 7 or 8 minutes at 550°F takes far more water out of a crust than 60 seconds at 905°F, so a Naples-style dough baked at home comes out crisp and a little dry. He wrote in 2016 that the AVPN dough is 55 to 58% water; the AVPN's current published recipe works out to about 56 to 63%. At 70%, the home-oven crust stays delicate and soft.
- Why add the mozzarella partway through?
- In a home oven, fresh mozzarella spends long enough above its melting point to turn liquid, and Forkish says the pizza then ends up more like a New York cheese pizza with basil. Adding it about 4 minutes into the bake keeps its texture close to a Naples Margherita.
- Can I use Caputo's blue bag?
- Yes. Forkish's recipes call for 00 flour, and both Caputo's blue Pizzeria bag and the red Chef's Flour work. The red bag is stronger and more forgiving over a long, cold ferment. Caputo says its flours are made with wheat and only wheat, so they have no added malt; if your crust is pale, give the oven a full preheat and the broiler finish before reaching for diastatic malt.
- How do I know the dough balls are ready?
- Forkish's test: the ball is relaxed and stretches out easily. Turn it over and you should see gassy holes underneath; it should feel soft and pliable, delicate and structurally sound at the same time. If it springs back when you stretch it, give it more time on the counter.
- Can I use a pizza stone instead of a steel?
- Yes. Forkish's recipes call for a steel or a stone and he tested on a steel. Either way, put it on an upper rack no more than 8 inches below the broiler and preheat it fully; the Pizza Planner allows 45 to 60 minutes.
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Sources
- Ken Forkish, The Elements of Pizza (2016), EPUB edition: chapter 2 (Neapolitan-style pizza in a home oven), chapter 3 (details 1 and 7: hydration and the oven, mature dough balls), chapter 4 (Caputo’s flours, canned tomatoes and DOP San Marzanos, fior di latte and mozzarella di bufala), chapter 5 (the home-oven bake, broiler and oven cutout), chapter 6 (the 24- to 48-Hour Pizza Dough) and chapter 7 (Basic Tomato Sauce and Pizza Margherita).
- Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana: public Neapolitan pizza recipe (water and flour quantities). Checked October 14, 2026.
- Caputo USA: “00” Pizzeria Flour and “00” Chef’s Flour product pages (protein, “wheat and only wheat”). Checked October 14, 2026.
- Arthur Bovino, “The 10 Commandments of Pizza,” The Pizza Cowboy: Tony Gemignani’s commandment against cold sauce, from The Pizza Bible (2014), and his explanation of it. Checked October 14, 2026.
- Pizza Planner and Pizza Calculator (jayarr.pizza): the Neapolitan-style home-oven route and the topping ranges for a 12-inch pizza. The AVPN percentage is calculated.