Margherita Focaccia Pizza
This is a fast and easy recipe for Margherita focaccia pizza – it takes only 5 minutes to prepare and 10 minutes to bake. I was able to make this ‘pizza’ so quickly because I used takeaway focaccia bread as a short-cut pizza base.
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Margherita pizza is an Italian pizza with basil (green), mozzarella (white) and tomato (red), which are colours of the Italy flag, so the ingredients are easy to remember.
FOUR MAIN INGREDIENTS IN MARGHERITA FOCACCIA PIZZA
Ingredient #1: Focaccia Bread
These days, whenever I takeaway lunch from Saizeriya, I will order two extra focaccia breads to make pizza. In that way, I had the next meal figured out :P After trying the focaccia bread at the recommendation of my mum, I thought that the bread seemed perfect for pizza. The small size (15cm) is also ideal for me as I prefer to eat smaller (but many) meals.
Ingredient #2: Fresh Mozzarella Cheese
This was my bag of fresh mozzarella cheese. To use, drain the water from the packet, pat the cheese dry with paper towel and sliced to your desired thickness & shape. Leftover cheese can be kept in a bowl of water in the fridge (changed daily) for up to 5 days.
Since my pizza was small, I cut the cheese to odd smaller pieces so that the perspective looked more normal :p You can actually cut the cheese to bigger (fewer) slices – I tried that last night and it looked good too.
Ingredient #3: Pizza Sauce
I can’t really tell the difference between pizza and pasta sauce, and it’s a pain to get a specific sauce, so when I saw this two-in-one pizza & pasta sauce, I bought it right away. I read that pasta sauce, especially marinara sauce, is a good substitute for pizza sauce. Leftover sauce can be frozen in the ice cube tray.
Ingredient #4: Fresh Basil
I started to grow some sweet basil at home. Roll a few basil leaves together and then slice them thinly to garnish the pizza.
Margherita Focaccia Pizza – Before & After Baking
Spread pizza sauce over the focaccia bread using the back of a spoon (I think I put a bit too much pizza sauce), then top with the sliced cheese.
P.S. This baking tray is an oven toaster size (half the size of a normal oven tray). I always bake two trays side by side in the oven.
Bake in oven for 10 minutes and garnish with fresh basil. For authenticity, you can give the pizza a light sprinkle of freshly cracked salt & a bit of extra virgin olive oil.
15-minute Margherita Focaccia Pizza Recipe
In place of focaccia bread, you can use other substitutes such as frozen pizza base, pita bread, puff pastry and naan.
Check out the ingredients and step-by-step photos on the previous page.
Ingredients:
- two personal-sized round focaccia bread (about 15 cm)
- 3 basil leaves thinly shredded
Per Pizza (Estimate):
- 1-2 tbsp pizza sauce see cooking note below
- 30g fresh Mozzarella cheese drained, patted dry & thinly sliced; see cooking note
Suggested Garnishes
- freshly cracked (pink) salt
- a small drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
Directions:
- Prepare the ‘pizza’. Place focaccia breads on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Spread the pizza sauce evenly on each bread using the back of a spoon, leaving a small gap around the edges. Top the bread with mozzarella cheese.
- Bake and serve. Bake in preheated oven of 200°C (392°F) for 10-12 minutes, or until the crust is lightly golden. Garnish with fresh basil, a small sprinkle of salt & a light drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
Cooking Note(s):
- Pizza sauce. In place of pizza sauce, you can use pasta sauce such as marinara sauce.
- Fresh mozzarella cheese. I used fresh mozzarella cheese submerged in water in the packet. If you use fresh mini mozzarella ball instead, just add the cheese balls directly on the pizza, evenly spaced out.
- Extra sprinkles. Even though this is not authentic, I personally like to add a few drops of tobasco sauce and some powdered Parmesan cheese to give this pizza a richer taste.