Pizza Marinara

Name: Pizza Marinara
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 50 min
Ingredients: 250g Cherry Tomatoes; 2 Cloves Garlic; 1 or 2 tbs Oregano Leaves; Drizzle Olive Oil; Salt

The Marinara dates back to 1735 and was prepared using a combination of cherry tomatoes, oregano, basil, garlic and olive oil. Historically, it was known to be consumed by poor sailors, and made on their ships due to easily preservable ingredients.

John DrummondWritten 16 July 2017

A marinara pizza on a wooden peel: tomato, sliced garlic and herbs, no cheese — Photographed in JD’s kitchen

Prep10min

Cook10min

All up

20min+ at least 1/2 hour

LevelMedium

Mise en place

What you need

Tick each one off as it goes in.

One of the simplest pizzas of all time, the Marinara is different than most traditional pizza’s due to it’s lack of cheese. You might think this sounds a bit bland, however with good quality fresh ingredients it doesn’t get much better.

I used my sourdough pizza dough for this recipe, but will be equally as good with my standard pizza dough recipe. I just think the sourdough base adds a little bit extra in terms of overall flavour.

Generally I would say high-quality Italian tinned tomatoes serve well as a pizza base, but ideally and if you can source, some good quality and ripe cherry tomatoes will make my Marinara that little bit more tasty.

The method

Eight moves.

Oven, Pre-Heat
If your using your oven, place a rack in the middle shelf and pre-heat to as high as it will go (240-260 degrees). If you have a pizza oven, even better - although due to the thicker layer of tomato base on the Marinara, it's sometimes better in the oven.
Place you pizza stone in the over for at least 1/2 hour to pre-heat. I have an Emile Henry pizza stone (pictured) for my indoor winter pizzas - it's just too cold to mess around with the outdoor pizza oven; although that will hopefully be converted to an 'indoor' pizza oven in the near future!
Tomatoes, Chop
Set aside 4-5 cherry tomatoes depending on their size. Place the remaining tomatoes into a food processor and pulse for a second. Give them a mix a pulse again. We are not looking to make tomato sauce, and also not looking to have large chucks - so somewhere in-between.
Basically think of the smallest size pieces you could chop with a knife - and if you don't have a food processor, do that! I use my Tupperware Turbo Chopper, which is a manual pull-cord chopper. It's really designed for herbs, but makes quick work of cherry tomatoes in a few batches.
Add the chopped tomatoes to a bowl, season well with salt and finely chopped oregano.
Garlic, Slice
Thinly slice your garlic cloves vertically. Aim to slice as thin as you can with a sharp kitchen knife.
Tomatoes, Slice
Thinly slice the remainder of the cherry tomatoes and season well with salt.
Base, Prepare
Push and/or roll out your pizza dough to form a rough circle, roughly 30-25cm in diameter. Push up the edges of the dough to form a ridge, If our using the oven and the pizza stone, cover a wooden pizza paddle with semolina flour and place the round on top - this will allow you pizza to easily slide into the oven. Drizzle the dough with some good quality olive oil - and make sure it's Italian!
Ingredients, Add
Spoon on the crushed tomatoes and using the back of the spoon, spread evenly. Don't go too close to the edge, leave a 3-4cm gap. Remember to spread thicker than you would a normal pizza as this is the primary ingredient. Add sliced tomatoes to the pizza, along with the garlic cloves and whole oregano leaves. How much you use is up to you, but try to keep it somewhat even.
Cook
Slide you pizza onto the hot pizza stone and cook. Every oven is different, so you will just need to use your judgement. The edges of the pizza should puff up, and when they start to brown it's almost ready. If your not sure, it's always better to overcook a tad, rather than have undercooked dough in the middle of your pizza.
Done
Place pizza on a wooden paddle. Top with extra chopped oregano and a light drizzle of olive oil. Slice and eat!