This quick and easy Cheese and Tomato Pizza takes less than 30 minutes to make. Perfect for when you need a delicious homemade margherita pizza in a hurry. (Plus discover my not-so-secret ‘cheat’ to get a super thin crust!)
Homemade margherita pizza in a hurry
Think making homemade pizza is time-consuming and difficult? Think again! With my Easy Cheese and Tomato Pizza recipe you can have freshly made pizza on the table in less than 30 minutes from start to finish.
My not-so-secret ‘cheat’ to get a super thin pizza crust!
One of the big problems with homemade pizza, is that, if you make the pizza base in the normal way you’d make a white bread, kneading for 10 minutes and two 45 minute proves, you end up with a really thick ‘bready’ base. And I don’t know about you, but I like my pizza crust super thin and crispy!
My not-so-secret ‘cheat’ to get a super thin pizza crust is the quick knead, no prove method. All you need to do is mix together flour, yeast, water, salt and olive oil in a bowl. Then knead for just 5 minutes. Don’t prove AT ALL and get straight on with rolling out the pizza dough and making your pizzas.
By doing it this way, the pizza bases don’t rise at all – giving you that perfect super thin and crispy base.
Better still, it dramatically cuts down on preparation time – and effort!
How to make Cheese and Tomato Pizza – the easy peasy way!
Once you’ve made the easy peasy pizza dough, all you need to do is divide the dough into 4 equal pieces, roll the pizzas out and pop them onto individual pizza trays. Then top each pizza with passata, grated cheese, oregano and black pepper. Finally, cook your pizzas in a hot oven for 10 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbling and the base is a light golden brown and crispy. Easy peasy!
(Full recipe given in the recipe card below.)
What to serve with Cheese and Tomato Pizza
You can totally just eat this homemade cheese and tomato pizza on its own!
But, if you want to add some extras, I recommend serving these simple margherita pizzas with garlic bread, homemade coleslaw and/or a side salad.
What to drink with Cheese and Tomato Pizza
Cheese and Tomato Pizza is very wine friendly. It goes especially well with Italian reds like Chianti, Valpolicella, Primitivo or Montepulciano d‘Abbruzzo.
It also works well with Sangiovese (the main grape variety in Chianti) or Primitivo/Zinfandel from other parts of the world. (Zinfandel is another name for Primitivo.)
Moving away from Italy and Italian grape varieties, Cheese and Tomato Pizza also goes well with Chilean Merlot and younger styles of Rioja (look for Joven or Crianza on the label.)
Make it your own…
Of course, if you want to branch out from good ol’ cheese and tomato pizza and add extra toppings there are plenty of great options, including:
- Ham (ripped into pieces)
- Bell peppers (sliced thinly)
- Onions (sliced thinly)
- Fresh tomatoes (sliced thinly)
- Cooked chicken (shredded)
- Peri peri chicken
- Black olives (sliced)
- Fresh chillies (sliced thinly)
- Dried chilli flakes
- Mushrooms (sliced thinly)
- Tuna (from a can)
- Pepperoni (sliced)
- Pineapple chunks (controversial, I know!)
- Sweetcorn (from a can)
- Cooked beef mince (I recommend mixing this with the passata for best results)
Just take care not to add too many toppings or you’ll find it hard to get your pizzas fully cooked before the crust starts to burn around the edges.
What cheese should you use on margherita pizza?
Traditionally margherita pizza is made with mozzarella cheese.
You can use either fresh mozzarella cheese or grated mozzarella. Or, if you prefer a stronger flavour, you can use grated cheddar instead.
What cheese you use is up to you and your tastebuds! But my personal preference is either grated mozzarella or a 50/50 mix of grated mozzarella and grated mature cheddar.
While I love fresh mozzarella on a pizza with lots of other toppings, I find fresh mozzarella is too bland for a plain cheese and tomato pizza.
What to do with leftover margherita pizza?
If you end up with leftovers, this homemade pizza keeps very well in the fridge. Simply place the cooked and cooled pizza in an airtight container in the fridge, where it will keep for up to 3 days.
This pizza is delicious cold, straight from the fridge, but can also be reheated. To reheat, set your oven to 200C (180C fan / gas mark 6 / 400F) and place the cold pizza on a pizza tray / baking tray. Put it straight in the oven (don’t wait for the oven to warm up!) and cook for 5-10 minutes, or until it’s piping hot and the base has crisped up again.
I don’t recommend reheating pizza in the microwave (soggy base issues!)
Can you freeze margherita pizza?
You can – I’ll be honest, it’s not as good after freezing, but it’ll work! Simply place the cooked and cooled pizza in an airtight container in the freezer, where it will keep for up to 3 months. Defrost overnight in the fridge and reheat as above.
If you like this recipe…
…you might also like:
- Quick and Easy Pizza Dough (Super Thin Crust)
- Peri Peri Chicken Pizza (Nando’s Inspired)
- Turkish Spicy Lamb Pizzas (Lahmacun)
- Easy One Pot Pepperoni Pizza Pasta
- Christmas Pizza
Peri Peri Chicken Pizza
Easy Cheese and Tomato Pizza (Margherita Pizza)
Ingredients
- 500 g strong white bread flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 7 g fast action yeast
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 350 ml lukewarm water (you may not need all of this, see below)
- 350 g passata (I use Cirio Passata Rustica)
- 300 g grated mozzarella (or fresh mozzarella or grated cheddar – see Note 1)
- 2 teaspoons oregano
- Black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 230C / 210C fan / gas mark 8 / 450F. Grease 4 large (12inch / 30cm) pizza trays with a little olive oil. (Or 8 smaller ones – See Note 2.)
- In a large bowl, mix together the flour, yeast and salt, then add the olive oil and stir. Slowly add the water until the mixture comes together to form a dough – the dough should just come together and should not be too wet/sticky. (You may not need all the water. Start with 300ml and see how it goes, add it in little bits after that.)
- Knead the pizza dough for 5 minutes on a floured surface.
- Divide the dough up into 4 equal sized pieces (or 8 if you are making small ones) – I use my scales to make this easier and more accurate.
- Roll out each piece out to roughly the size of the pizza tray. Put the rolled out dough in the pizza tray and stretch out gently to the full size of the pizza tray (this is because it will shrink slightly when you pick it up).
- Top each pizza with 4 tablespoons passata. Spread the passata all over the base using the back of a spoon, leaving a thin border all around the pizza. (Don’t use too much passata or it will make your pizzas soggy.)
- Top with the grated cheese, oregano and black pepper.
- Cook your pizzas in your pre-heated oven for 10-15 minutes. You may find you need to move the pizzas around in your oven so they cook evenly.
- The pizzas are ready when the cheese is bubbling and the base is a light golden brown and crispy, not soggy. (If you discover as you are cutting the pizza that the base is still a bit soggy, just pop it back in the pizza tray and back in the oven for a couple more minutes.)
Notes
- What cheese you use is up to you. You can use grated mozzarella, grated cheddar or torn fresh mozzarella. My personal preference is either grated mozzarella or a 50/50 mix of grated mozzarella and grated mature cheddar. While I love fresh mozzarella on a pizza with lots of other toppings, I find fresh mozzarella is too bland for a plain cheese and tomato pizza.
- This recipe can also be used to make 8 smaller 7inch / 18cm pizzas. If you don’t have a pizza tray, use a baking tray or cake tin of a similar size instead.
- The trick to getting a super thin crust is to only knead for 5 minutes and not prove the dough, so be careful not to leave the pizza dough to rest to long at any point or you will find the dough rises and you’ll have thick crust pizzas!
- Suitable for freezing.
- Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
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Fiona Heslop says
Oh my gosh, that was so easy and lush! Your email came through about 2 hours ago and I thought ooh that looks interesting…I have all the ingredients…lets give it a go. The whole family devoured it all!!!
Eb Gargano says
Aw, yay – that’s so great to hear! Thank you for this lovely review 😀