🇮🇹 Italian · Pizza
🍕 Pizza Marinara
Pizza Marinara
Older than the Margherita and entirely dairy-free, this Neapolitan classic dresses the same slow-fermented dough with just tomato, garlic, oregano, and olive oil.
Despite the name, marinara pizza has no seafood at all — the name is thought to reference sailors' wives, who supposedly made this simple, long-keeping pizza for their husbands' voyages, since it contains no dairy that would spoil at sea.
Ingredients
Equipment: Large mixing bowl, Pizza stone or steel, Pizza peel
- 500 g (4 cups) 00 flour or bread flour
- 325 ml (1⅓ cups) water, room temperature
- 10 g (1¾ tsp) fine sea salt
- 2 g (½ tsp) active dry yeast
- 400 g (14 oz) canned San Marzano tomatoes, crushed by hand
- 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Salt, to taste
Method
- Dissolve the yeast in the water, then gradually mix in the flour and salt to form a shaggy dough.
- Knead for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic, then place in an oiled bowl, cover, and let rise at room temperature for 2 hours.
- Divide into 4 balls, shape each into a tight round, and refrigerate covered for at least 8 hours, ideally 24.
- Remove the dough 1–2 hours before baking to come to room temperature.
- Preheat the oven with a pizza stone or steel to its highest setting for a full hour.
- Stretch one dough ball by hand into a round, leaving a slightly thicker border.
- Spread crushed tomatoes over the base, scatter with sliced garlic and oregano, season with salt, and drizzle with olive oil.
- Slide onto the hot stone and bake for 6–8 minutes until the crust is puffed and charred in spots.
- Finish with an extra drizzle of good olive oil and serve immediately.
Chef Tips
- Slice the garlic thinly and evenly so it cooks through without burning in the hot oven.
- Because there's no cheese to add moisture and richness, generous, good-quality olive oil matters even more here.
- The same long-fermented dough used for Margherita works perfectly for marinara.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Using pre-minced garlic, which burns far more easily than freshly sliced cloves in a hot oven.
- Skimping on olive oil, leaving the pizza tasting flat without cheese to carry richness.
- Overloading with oregano, which can turn bitter and overpowering in large amounts.
Nutrition (per serving)
Health Benefits
- A naturally vegan pizza, rich in lycopene from the tomatoes.
Cultural Note
Marinara predates the Margherita and remains a point of pride among traditional Neapolitan pizzaiuoli, valued for showing off good tomatoes and dough with nothing to hide behind.
Storage & Serving
Storage: Best eaten fresh; keeps refrigerated for up to 2 days.
Reheating: Reheat in a hot skillet or oven; avoid the microwave, which leaves the crust soggy.
Serve with: A simple arugula salad, A light Italian red or white wine