Name: Pizza marinara
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 6 min
Total time: 10 h 51 min
Cuisine: Italian, Naples / Campania
Ingredients: 610 g Italian type 00 or type 0 pizza flour, medium strength; roughly 11–13% protein is a practical home target; 366 g cool water, about 60% hydration; 15 g fine sea salt; 0.3 g instant dry yeast, or about 0.9 g fresh brewer’s yeast; 20 g pizza flour for dusting, use only as much as needed for bench and peel; 320 g whole peeled tomatoes, lightly drained and crushed by hand; about 80 g per pizza; 4 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced very thinly; 2 g dried oregano, about a generous pinch per pizza; 2 g fine sea salt, for the tomatoes; 20 g extra-virgin olive oil, about 5 g per pizza

Pizza Marinara on a wooden board with tomato, garlic, oregano and basil garnish

Prep45 minutes

Cook6 minutes

Total10 h 51 min

Yield4 pizzas, about 28–30 cm each

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The dish

About Pizza marinara

Pizza marinara is the austere companion to Margherita in the Neapolitan canon. The Pizza Napoletana TSG specification describes its topping directly: crushed peeled tomato, salt, oregano, thinly sliced garlic and extra-virgin olive oil. There is no mozzarella and no cheese layer to hide the quality of the dough or tomato.

The same Neapolitan dough logic used for Margherita applies here: a moderately hydrated flour-and-water dough with salt and very little yeast, followed by a long room-temperature fermentation. The dough balls are opened by hand from the centre outward, preserving a raised rim; a rolling pin or mechanical press is specifically excluded by the TSG method.

Topping is deliberately light. Each pizza receives roughly 70–100 g tomato, a small amount of garlic and oregano, and about 5 g olive oil. Overloading the centre makes a cheese-free pizza especially prone to sogginess because there is no mozzarella to buffer liquid.

Traditional baking happens extremely fast at Neapolitan pizza temperatures, roughly 485 °C, with a 60–90 second bake. A domestic oven cannot reproduce that exact combination of floor heat and dome radiation, so any home-oven adaptation should be described as an adaptation rather than an identical TSG result.

The supplied photographs include visible basil leaves. Basil is not part of the canonical Marinara topping in the TSG formula used here, so it is treated as a photographic garnish rather than silently added to the recipe ingredients.

Technique

Three things that matter

Do not use a rolling pin. Hand opening preserves gas in the rim and follows the Neapolitan shaping method.
Keep the topping spare. Tomato, garlic, oregano and oil are enough; excess moisture prevents the centre from setting cleanly.
Bake at genuinely fierce heat. The traditional texture depends on a very short bake with strong floor and dome heat.

Cook the dish

Ingredients

Everything needed to prepare the dish, arranged for fast scanning before cooking.

Dough

610 gItalian type 00 or type 0 pizza flourmedium strength; roughly 11–13% protein is a practical home target
366 gcool waterabout 60% hydration
15 gfine sea salt
0.3 ginstant dry yeastor about 0.9 g fresh brewer’s yeast
20 gpizza flour for dustinguse only as much as needed for bench and peel

Marinara topping

320 gwhole peeled tomatoeslightly drained and crushed by hand; about 80 g per pizza
4garlic clovespeeled and sliced very thinly
2 gdried oreganoabout a generous pinch per pizza
2 gfine sea saltfor the tomatoes
20 gextra-virgin olive oilabout 5 g per pizza

Step by step

Method

Mix and build the dough

Dissolve the salt. Put the 366 g water in the mixing bowl and dissolve the 15 g sea salt completely. The water should be cool enough that the finished dough does not become warm during kneading.
Start with a little flour, then add the yeast. Mix in about 60 g of the flour to make a loose batter. Add the instant dry yeast and disperse it thoroughly before the rest of the flour goes in. This limits prolonged direct contact between concentrated salt and yeast.
Add the remaining flour and knead. Add the rest of the 610 g flour gradually. Knead at low speed, or by hand, until the dough becomes one smooth, cohesive mass with good elasticity, about 15–20 minutes depending on the mixer and flour. The surface should feel soft and slightly tacky rather than wet or floury.
The finished dough should stretch without immediately tearing and should release from the bowl as one coherent mass.
Rest the dough in bulk. Cover the bowl and leave the dough for 2 hours at about 20–22 °C. The aim is relaxation and the start of fermentation, not a dramatic doubling in volume.

Ball and ferment

Divide into four dough balls. Turn the dough onto a clean surface and divide it into four pieces of about 248 g each. Shape each piece into a tight, smooth ball without tearing the outer surface.
Complete the second fermentation. Place the balls in a covered dough box or individual containers with enough room to expand. Leave for about 8 hours at 20–22 °C. At the end, the dough should be visibly aerated, soft and relaxed.
A ready dough ball spreads slightly under its own weight and opens easily without snapping back hard.

Prepare the topping and shape

Crush the tomatoes and slice the garlic. Crush the peeled tomatoes by hand until saucy but still textured. Stir in the 2 g salt. Slice each garlic clove into very thin pieces and keep the oregano and olive oil ready.
The tomato should be spoonable without a pool of watery juice.
Heat the pizza oven fully. Bring the oven to full Neapolitan baking heat. The traditional TSG bake uses a floor around 485 °C with very strong dome heat.
The baking surface should be stable before the first pizza is launched.
Open one dough ball by hand. Dust the bench lightly. Press from the centre outward with fingertips, turning the dough while leaving a 1–2 cm rim untouched. Stretch to roughly 28–30 cm without a rolling pin.
The rim should remain visibly fuller and aerated while the centre is thin but intact.
Top as a marinara. Spread about 80 g tomato over the centre. Add thin garlic slices, a pinch of oregano and about 5 g extra-virgin olive oil. Leave the rim clean.
The surface should look lightly dressed, with tomato still visible between garlic and oregano.

Bake and serve

Bake fast. Launch onto the hot floor and bake for 60–90 seconds, turning as needed so the rim blisters and colours evenly.
The underside should be set but flexible, the tomato hot and reduced, and the cornicione puffed with scattered dark spots.
Serve immediately. Move to a plate, settle for about 30 seconds and serve. Repeat with the remaining dough balls one at a time.
The centre should remain soft enough to fold without being wet or raw.

Practical guidance

Canonical topping

The TSG Marinara formula is tomato, salt, oregano, garlic and olive oil. Cheese is intentionally absent.

Basil in the photographs

The supplied images visibly include basil; because basil is not part of the cited canonical Marinara formula, it is treated as a non-essential garnish rather than an ingredient.

Domestic oven

A steel or stone under the hottest broiler can make a good home pizza, but the result should be described as a domestic adaptation rather than an identical Neapolitan TSG bake.

Troubleshooting

The centre is watery. Tomatoes were too wet or too much topping was used. Drain lightly and stay near the 70–100 g range.
The rim is flat. The dough was rolled or compressed during shaping, or fermentation was incomplete.
Garlic burns bitter. Slices were too thick or remained exposed too long in a slower oven. Very fast traditional baking tolerates thin slices better.

Nutrition per serving

Serving size: 1 pizza, about 28–30 cm
Calories: approximately 655 kcal
Carbohydrates: 116 g
Protein: 18 g
Fat: 12 g
Fibre: 5 g
Sodium: approximately 1,800 mg

Estimate uses the same four-pizza dough as the Margherita recipe and the complete Marinara topping; sodium depends mainly on dough salt and tomatoes.

Allergens and food safety

Contains wheat/gluten.

Keep fermented dough covered and within the planned fermentation window rather than leaving it indefinitely at warm room temperature.

Use heat-resistant tools and long peels around a 450–500 °C pizza oven.

FAQ

Does Pizza Marinara contain seafood?

No. Despite the name, the canonical topping here is tomato, garlic, oregano and olive oil.

Does Marinara contain basil?

Not in the Pizza Napoletana TSG Marinara formula cited here. The supplied photographs show basil as a visual garnish, but it is not required in this recipe.

Can mozzarella be added?

Adding mozzarella changes the pizza away from Marinara and toward other Neapolitan styles.

Final note

What matters most

Result: A soft, blistered Neapolitan pizza with bright tomato, aromatic garlic and oregano, and olive oil shining across the centre without cheese.
Key: Preserve the airy rim, keep topping light and bake fast at genuine pizza-oven heat.