Pizza Margherita -- The Garden at Its Peak, Made Simple

The week after Bill's visit. The house quiet again, the extra bedroom put back, the kitchen to myself. But the quiet is different from before he came — a different quality of it, the quiet of a place where something has recently happened rather than where nothing does. Two years of letters and phone calls and now a person who sat at my table and ate my food and walked my land. Real in a different way than he was before.

He called Sunday from Maine, already back. He said: I'm going to make the Brandywine tomato salad this week. He'd seen the plants, he knew what they looked like now, he'd eaten the thing itself at my table. The knowledge has a physical dimension it didn't have from description. I said: use good salt. He said: you said that three times while I was there. I said: it needs to be said three times.

The family arrives next week. Sarah and Jim and the boys — two weeks on the farm, the annual August visit. This year Teddy has the beef wellington in mind. I've been thinking through what the meal requires and what needs to be in the house before he arrives. The duxelles needs to be made ahead, the tenderloin sourced, the puff pastry — I'll make it from scratch with him, which is ambitious but correct. You don't make beef wellington from store puff pastry when you have a week and a fourteen-year-old who can handle complexity.

The garden is at its absolute peak. More tomatoes than I can eat. More zucchini than anyone can use. The beans are a daily harvest. The corn is ready. August is doing what August does.

With Bill gone and the family not yet arrived, I find myself in that particular in-between week where the garden demands attention and the kitchen is still mine alone — and the tomatoes, at their absolute peak, deserve something that doesn’t complicate them. A Pizza Margherita is the honest answer: a thin crust, good olive oil, summer tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil from just outside the door. It’s the same principle I told Bill three times over the salad — use good salt, don’t add what doesn’t need to be there — and it holds here too.

Pizza Margherita

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 12 min | Total Time: 32 min (plus 1 hr dough rise) | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (1 packet)
• 3/4 cup warm water (about 110°F)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil, plus more for drizzling
• 1/2 cup crushed San Marzano or fresh peak-season tomatoes
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 8 oz fresh mozzarella, torn into pieces
• 8–10 fresh basil leaves
• Flaky sea salt, to finish
• Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Make the dough. Combine yeast and warm water in a large bowl and let sit 5 minutes until foamy. Add flour, fine sea salt, and olive oil. Mix until a shaggy dough forms, then turn out onto a floured surface and knead 8 minutes until smooth and elastic. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover, and let rise 1 hour or until doubled.
2. Prepare the sauce. Stir together the crushed tomatoes and minced garlic in a small bowl. Season lightly with salt. Keep it simple — you want the tomato to taste like itself.
3. Heat the oven. Place a baking sheet or pizza stone on the top rack and preheat oven to 500°F (or as high as your oven goes) for at least 30 minutes.
4. Shape the dough. Punch down the risen dough and stretch or roll it on a floured surface into a roughly 12-inch round. Transfer to a piece of parchment paper.
5. Top the pizza. Spoon a thin, even layer of tomato sauce over the dough, leaving a 3/4-inch border. Scatter the torn mozzarella evenly over the sauce. Drizzle lightly with olive oil.
6. Bake. Slide the pizza (on the parchment) onto the hot baking sheet or stone. Bake 10–12 minutes until the crust is golden and blistered and the cheese is bubbling and just beginning to brown in spots.
7. Finish and serve. Remove from oven and immediately scatter fresh basil leaves over the top. Finish with flaky sea salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Slice and serve at once.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 380 | Protein: 16g | Fat: 13g | Carbs: 50g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 620mg