Pizza Margherita Day

Pizza Margherita Day marks the anniversary of the naming of Pizza Margherita, also known as Margherita pizza, on June 11, 1889. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, pizza baked in coal-fired ovens became dominant in Naples. Italy's King Umberto I visited Naples with Queen Margherita in June 1889. According to legend, the Queen had heard a lot about pizza and wanted to try it. Ingredients to make pizzas (or the pizzas themselves) were brought to the palazzo where they were staying by Don Raffaele Esposito, owner of Pietro il Pizzaiolo, and his wife Donna Rossa, who made the pizza. Rossa made three kinds of pizza for Queen Margherita, and the queen's preference was for the one with tomatoes, fresh buffalo mozzarella, and fresh basil. Coincidentally—or maybe not so coincidentally—the top of the pizza was red, white, and green, the colors of the Italian flag.

The veracity of the Margherita story is in question, and it wasn't widely reported until the 1930s or 1940s. Regardless, Pizza Margherita is one of the most popular pizzas eaten in the United States and Italy today. Traditionally made in a brick, wood-fired oven, it is also made in electric and gas ovens. Softer flours like 00 flour or bread flour are the best to use, mixed with water, salt, and yeast. The best tomatoes to use are hand-crushed and peeled plum tomatoes, like San Marzano, and should be spread lightly on the dough. Either fresh or canned, then drained tomatoes may be used. Buffalo mozzarella such as Mozzarella di Bufala Campana DOP or fresh mozzarella is used, and may be sliced, diced, or cut another way before being placed on the pizza. Basil should be fresh and put on after the pizza comes out of the oven. The only other ingredient that may be used to make Pizza Margherita is extra virgin olive oil. The pizza should be served within minutes of being taken out of the oven; it is often eaten folded into four sections, as pizza a portafoglio.

How to Observe Pizza Margherita Day

Have Pizza Margherita! Make your own or have it at a pizzeria. You could have it at a pizzeria near you or at one of the best places that serve it in the world, such as Pizzeria Brandi, the location that was once Pietro il Pizzaiolo.

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