Fasting Pizza Marinara (Neapolitan Tomato Pizza, No Cheese)

Pizza marinara is not "vegan pizza" or "pizza without cheese." It is one of the two original pizzas of Naples — the other being margherita — and it has been cheese-free since it was invented. The name has nothing to do with seafood; it refers to the sailors' wives who made it for their husbands returning from sea, since tomato, garlic, and oregano kept well without refrigeration.

It is also the ideal fasting pizza. Zero apologies, zero compromises, entirely traditional. If your pizzeria has a marinara on the menu, you can eat it on any oil-permitted fasting day.

The dough here is a simple Neapolitan-style — 65% hydration, long cold ferment, baked as hot as your oven goes. If you have a pizza stone or steel, use it. If you have a pizza oven, you already know what to do.

NUTRITION (per pizza, serves 1 very generously or 2 modestly)

- Protein: ~14g
- Calories: ~540
- Fat: ~14g (mostly from olive oil)
- Lycopene from the tomatoes (heart-protective)
- Allicin from the garlic

Add a side of olives and a handful of arugula with olive oil and lemon, and you have a complete meal.

INGREDIENTS (makes 4 individual pizzas)

For the dough:
- 600g "00" flour (or bread flour)
- 400ml cold water (67% hydration)
- 12g fine salt
- 1/2 tsp instant yeast (very little — we use long fermentation for flavor)

For each pizza (topping):
- 3 tbsp San Marzano crushed tomatoes (or other good canned tomatoes, crushed by hand)
- 1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
- 1 tsp olive oil, plus more for drizzling after baking
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano (Sicilian, on the branch, if possible)
- Pinch of salt
- Optional: a few fresh basil leaves, torn, added after baking

METHOD

1. Mix the dough: combine flour, water, salt, and yeast in a bowl. Mix until no dry flour remains. Rest 15 minutes.

2. Knead for 5 minutes — not too much. The dough should be smooth but can still feel slightly tacky.

3. Cover and rest at room temperature for 2 hours, then divide into 4 equal balls (~250g each). Place in an oiled container, cover, and refrigerate for 24-72 hours. The long cold ferment is what makes pizza dough taste like pizza dough.

4. Two hours before baking, take the dough balls out and let them come to room temperature.

5. Preheat your oven as hot as it goes — 260°C (500°F) minimum — with a pizza stone or steel on the middle rack for 45 minutes. If you do not have a stone, use an overturned heavy baking sheet.

6. On a floured surface, stretch a dough ball into a 28cm round. Do not roll. Use your fingertips to press the dough from the center outward, leaving a 1cm border (the cornicione). Gently lift and stretch the edges.

7. Transfer to a floured pizza peel or a piece of parchment.

8. Top: spread the tomato in a thin layer, leaving the border clear. Scatter the garlic slices. Sprinkle the oregano. Drizzle the oil. Pinch of salt.

9. Slide onto the hot stone. Bake 6-8 minutes in a home oven, until the cornicione is puffed and darkly spotted and the bottom is crisp. In a pizza oven at 450°C, this takes 90 seconds.

10. Finish with a drizzle of fresh olive oil and the torn basil if using. Eat immediately, ideally with your hands.

STRICT DAYS

Pizza marinara does not work without olive oil — the oil is one of the five ingredients. On strict days, bake simple focaccia-style flatbread with just tomato and oregano, no oil, as a brothy topping over bread.

NOTES

The dough freezes beautifully after the cold ferment — wrap individual balls tightly and freeze up to a month. Thaw overnight in the fridge before using.

A pizzeria-quality pizza at home requires one investment: a pizza stone or steel. A 1cm steel slab is the single upgrade that makes home pizza indistinguishable from a proper oven. Worth it if you bake pizza more than occasionally.