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Margarita Pizzas?

T

Thin2win

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How many of you all make them and how popular are they?? thinking about adding them to the menu!
 
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Varying ways of making it from just cheese, tomato and basil to the original way of crushed tomatos and garlic with bocochini, fesh basil and olive oil.
We do our normal sauce base then shredded mozz, sliced tomato and fresh basil and topped again with mozz.
A fairly regular seller and expected from most pizza stores.

Dave
 
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We have one and it doesn’t sell that well. We’re in the heart of the Midwest where it’s mostly about the meat.

Ours is on a thin crust, brushed with olive oil, then topped with Roma tomatoes, red onion and fresh Basil leaves (all ingredients we carry anyway) and “lightly cheesed” (music to my ears). Once people try it, the feedback is always really positive. My wife and I love it with chicken added, since our only complaint echoes our customers, in that it’s not all that filling.
 
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I like to make it a free standing, pizza, different from a regular cheese pizza. I do this by brushing the dough skin with olive oil, then adding diced garlic, and using sliced, fresh tomato instead of sauce. I’ve also used the 74/40 tomato filets from Stanislaus with equally good success, and they are available the year around. For cheese, I use the Grande fresh mozzarella (4-ounce balls) and peel it like an orange, then place the pieces randomly over the top of the pie. Give it a good, solid bake and as soon as it comes from the oven add fresh basil leaves. Compared to regular pizzas, it is a presentation all by itself, and in some stores they can charge a premium price for it, truth be known, the cost is actually a bit less than what it costs to make a regular cheese pizza.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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Tom mentions something important to the margherita . . . . year round. Fresh tomatoes make this pizza absolutely sublime . . . . but only when they are in season in your local area. Anemic tasting, sightly green, boxcar shipped spheres of red tastelessness are not useful on this pie. Full flavored, sweet and acidic perfection is what you want. If it ain’t local and season, then I suggest to everyone to get a top end canned product. I am a proud Stanislaus guy, and find there 74/40 great, as well as their whole tomato products. Others report success with Escalon. Grocery store brands will not be so good for this application.

Remember that this is three or four simple, fresh ingredients standing up and showing off. Get the best of each you can afford to use. Tomato, basil, Olive Oil, fresh mozzarella (and maybe some garlic). Can’t hide the cheap in this format.
 
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Nick you also hit on a very good point. Seasonal options! Every region has their own cycles of produce that can give you a great variety of “fresh” options. Get into a good working relationship with local growers and promote the heII out of it. You customer base will learn to expect something new and fresh every 3 months and it gives you something new on every 90 day mailing. “Hey, its time for Marg pizzas again, with locally grown Roma’s from XYZ Farms!” Etc…etc.etc. Take a look at what your area offers… put a plan together and think outside the norm. I would think it would not only help get people in the door…but back on a regular basis. The other good side of it all… at little actual cost to you! :mrgreen:
 
Not to upset the applecart, but Romas are not really needed for this application, I’ve been using some absolutely wonderfully flavored heritage tomatoes for this application. Just make sure that whatever type of tomato you use is vine ripened for the best flavor.
You are absolutely right! Now is the time to be promoting “fresh”, “locally grown” to your customers. I have been promoting what I like to call Pizza Primavera, using only fresh sliced tomato rather than sauce, and topped with fresh, locally grown toppings secured from a local farmer, or the local farmer’s market. If you do this, do keep in mind that there are food safety regulations coming down the pike that will require you to get a certification from the grower saying where the produce was grown, and that it was grown under safe food growing conditions, this should not be a big deal, but you do need to be aware of it or you might not pass your next food safety inspection.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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We Americans often miss the point by importing “authentic Italian San Marzano tomatoes” or some such. they use them in Italy because they are superior locally produced products. We do miss the forest sometimes for be amazed by the tress. I am one who does it, too, sometimes.
 
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Not wanting to stray off the local goods…but everytime I hit Chicago I stop at Caputo’s Cheese Market and stock up on the San Marzanos and a few other imported items. I know fresh is fresh…but damn those tomatos even in a can are something else! Anyone else that gets up too the windy city should make Caputo’s a stop. They make their own cheese and cured meats… add some homemade Italian sausage of 10 varieties… let’s not forget the bread! Let’s just say it is a long 4 hour drive home after hitting the market knowing that dinner is going too rock!!! :!:
 
Just an interesting aside…we were recently in Rome and of course finding the “best pizza” was part of my plan. I was disappointed more than once when ordering a “Margarita” in ITALY only to be served what we would call a “cheese pizza”. Only one of the many places we sampled served what we refer to as the Margarita. I even started to question the staff (which wasn’t exactly welcomed…) how they make what they were calling a “Margarita”.
 
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It is one of our best selling (and most profitable) pizzas but we don’t have a lot of other meatless options on our menu. We use a garlic and olive oil base and place the basil under the cheese. We then top with sliced tomatoes and cook it. A few minutes before it is done, we will add a sprinkle of Parmesan Cheese.

We spell it Margherita on our menu.
 
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Marathon Man,

What kind of mozz do you use? And the parm. . . grated, shredded, Reggiano or domestic?

It really seems a scale of how far we want to go to “glam” up the pie and make it unique . . . too far and we lose the average customers; not enough and we could miss out on the potential ‘boutique’ clients.
 
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I started a MargHerita Pizza last week. (It can be spelled both margherita or margerita, but the “proper” spelling is Margherita named after and created for the Queen of Italy in 1889.

Anyway, I started this about a week or so ago. We use light sauce, Fresh mozzarella balls sliced, then topped with a bit of hand torn basil. Simple, fresh, and fantastic.

It has been an ok seller so far. New items sometimes take a few weeks to gain a following. I can keep you posted if you would like.

Good luck in your decision!
 
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Try one with a sprinkle of kosher salt . . . big crystal salt . . . a dash of coarse fresh cracked black pepper and a light drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. You may find it superior to the parm. I go back and forth on it.

The ABSOLUTE WORST part of being out of the pizza business is that I just can’t find a decent pizza anywhere!! :shock: :evil: :cry:
 
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NicksPizza:
Marathon Man,

What kind of mozz do you use? And the parm. . . grated, shredded, Reggiano or domestic?

It really seems a scale of how far we want to go to “glam” up the pie and make it unique . . . too far and we lose the average customers; not enough and we could miss out on the potential ‘boutique’ clients.
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We just use our standard mozzarella that we use on all our pizzas. The parm is shredded. I usually recommend that that customers get it on our thin crust as opposed to our regular. In the Portland meto area, our pizza is pretty similar to what people think of when they think Margherita and what the competition has.

BTW, nice nickname 😃 If only I still had time to run after opening this pizza store.
 
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Oh come on… running a pizza store adds up to more than the 26.2 a week! :shock: Just a very short course!
 
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