Dish of the day · Dishle #1 answer · June 12, 2026

What Is Pizza Margherita? The Pizza Named for a Queen

Pizza Margherita is a Neapolitan pizza topped with crushed tomatoes, mozzarella, fresh basil, and a drizzle of olive oil, baked fast in a blistering wood-fired oven. The name honors Margherita of Savoy, Italy’s queen in 1889, though “margherita” also means “daisy” in Italian, and some argue the original name described mozzarella slices arranged like petals. Either way, the three toppings (red, white, and green) happen to match the Italian flag, and that patriotic color scheme is a big part of the legend. Born in Naples, it’s still the benchmark.

A short history

The famous story goes like this: in June 1889, Naples pizzaiolo Raffaele Esposito baked three pizzas for Queen Margherita’s visit, and she favored the one in patriotic colors. A thank-you letter from the royal household, still displayed at Pizzeria Brandi, backs the tale. Food historians push back, though. Descriptions of Naples pizzas topped with tomato, mozzarella, and basil show up decades before the royal visit, and some scholars question whether the letter is genuine. So treat 1889 as the dish’s christening rather than its birth. What’s certain is the aftermath: the Margherita became the benchmark of Neapolitan pizza, and in 2017 UNESCO added the craft of the Neapolitan pizzaiuolo to its list of intangible cultural heritage.

What’s in it?

The classic version keeps its list short and strict. The dough is just flour, water, salt, and yeast, left to rise slowly and stretched by hand. On top go crushed tomatoes (San Marzano, if you’re being proper), mozzarella, either fior di latte from cow’s milk or mozzarella di bufala, plus fresh basil leaves, a pinch of salt, and olive oil. That’s it. Naples’ pizza guardians, the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, publish rules covering everything from dough thickness to oven temperature: about 485 °C, for no more than 90 seconds. Variations abroad pile on extra toppings; the Naples original stays minimal.

How do you eat it?

In Naples, a Margherita is a single-serving meal, eaten hot the moment it leaves the oven: the center is soft, almost soupy, so locals attack it with a knife and fork at the table. Street vendors fold the whole pizza into quarters, called “a libretto” (like a little book), so you can eat it one-handed while walking, a trick Naples has used for generations. Nothing extra is needed on top, though a glass of something cold and fizzy is the usual companion. One rule travels everywhere: don’t let it sit. A Margherita’s window of perfection is measured in minutes.

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