1. Prepare your pizza dough ahead of time.
2. Finely slice the garlic with a small serrated knife – it’s worth taking your time with this.
Transfer the sliced garlic to a small ramekin and cover with a tbsp of olive oil. This helps in two ways: it’s easier to separate the slices, and it protects the garlic from burning and becoming acrid during the cook.
3. In a small bowl, dissolve ½ tsp salt in cold water.
Carefully pinch around 8 nice basil leaves and submerge them in the water. In a similar way to the oil and garlic, the salty water prevents the basil from burning, while the steam from the water in the hot oven helps diffuse the oils from the basil evenly across the pizza.
4. Place the 400g can of San Marzano plum tomatoes in a bowl.
Add a generous pinch of sea salt and use your hands to break the tomatoes down to a chunky sauce. Don’t worry if it looks a little wetter than usual – with no cheese to protect it, the oven will evaporate a lot of the liquid.
5. Fire up your Ooni pizza oven.
6. Using a small amount of flour, dust your Ooni pizza peel.
Using a small amount of flour, dust your Ooni pizza peel. Stretch the pizza dough ball out to 12”/16” and lay it out on your peel. With a large spoon or ladle, spread 5-6 tbsp of your pizza sauce evenly over the base. Remember, you can be much more generous with the sauce as there is no cheese to weigh it down!
7. Add the slices of garlic, followed by the basil.
Give the leaves a quick shake to remove any excess water. Crush the oregano in the palms of your hand and sprinkle it across the centre of the pizza. Finally, top with a swirl of olive oil and a pinch of fresh ground pepper if you fancy.
8. Slide the pizza off the peel and into your Ooni pizza oven.
Cook for 1-2 minutes, making sure to turn the pizza regularly. Once cooked, remove from the oven.
9. Serve right away and indulge in the subtleties of this simple Neapolitan-style Marinara pizza!.
Serve right away and indulge in the subtleties of this simple Neapolitan-style Marinara pizza!
