The most famous story about Margherita pizza says that in 1889, the Italian Queen Margherita di Savoia, wife of King Umberto I, expressed the desire to try Neapolitan pizza while staying at the summer residence in Capodimonte. At that time, this was poor people's food. The court chef knew French cuisine perfectly, but had no idea about southern Italian cuisine. For this reason, Raffaele Esposito, owner of the best Neapolitan pizzeria, was summoned. He served the queen three pizzas that were baked in his restaurant especially for the queen. Two traditional and one improvised for the occasion. This pizza was topped with red tomatoes, green parsley and white mozzarella, symbolizing the colors of the Italian flag. The story goes that this was the one the queen enjoyed the most. Esposito later named his patriotic pizza after the queen – Pizza Margherita.
In 1974, historian Massimo Albertini claimed this story about the origins of Margherita pizza was a fabrication. The Italian restaurateur and journalist Corrado Epriccelli, in turn, is conducting his own research. Accordingly, the tricolor pizza was actually made for the first time in 1889, on June 6th at the royal court in Neapolis. The pizza master Papino Brandi received a special certificate for preparing his pizza, which can still be found in the family pizzeria “Brandi” today.
If you're now in the mood for Pizza Margherita, here's another delicious recipe:
Ingredients
preparation
Knead the yeast, sugar and 4 tablespoons of water together and let it rest for 15 minutes. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and make a well in the middle. The olive oil, yeast and the remaining water go in there. Knead the dough. Then the dough is placed on a work surface sprinkled with flour and kneaded for another 4-5 minutes. Place it back in the bowl, cover it with a cloth and let it rest until it has doubled in size. Knead the dough for another 2 minutes and pull it apart on a tray with your hands.The doughShouldn't be thicker than 6mm as it will rise during baking.
Cook the tomatoes, garlic, basil, olive oil and salt in a large pot for 20 minutes until the sauce thickens. Add the tomato puree and let cool slightly. Spread the dough with the tomato sauce, spread the mozzarella on top and sprinkle with the Parmesan. Bake at 200 degrees for about 20 minutes.
Bon appetit!
