Gordon Ramsay’s margherita pizza from Ultimate Cookery Course is homemade dough cooked in a frying pan until the base blisters, then topped with passata, torn mozzarella and rosemary and finished under a hot grill. Makes 4 pizzas and takes about 90 minutes including the rise.
He cooks pizza in a frying pan, not an oven. In the book he explains that “most domestic ovens don’t get hot enough to achieve that really crisp crust flecked with scorch marks.” The pan sits directly on the hob flame, which reaches a higher temperature than the air inside a home oven ever will.
The pan does half the cooking, the grill does the other half. The base crisps on the hob for 5 to 8 minutes until it bubbles, then the whole pizza goes under a hot grill for 4 minutes to melt the cheese and finish the top. This mimics a pizza oven, where heat hits the base from the stone floor and the top from the domed roof at the same time.
Gordon Ramsay Margherita Pizza Recipe
Course: DinnersCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Easy4
pizzas20
minutes10
minutes480
kcal1 hr 30 min
Ramsay’s frying pan pizza from the baking chapter of UCC. He adds a tablespoon of sugar to the dough, which most pizza recipes skip, to feed the yeast and help the crust brown faster in the pan.
Ingredients
- For the dough:
2 × 7g sachets dried yeast
1 tbsp golden caster sugar
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
500g (1 lb 2 oz / 4 cups) strong bread flour or Italian ‘00’ flour
1 tbsp fine sea salt
- For the topping:
8 tbsp tomato passata
2 balls of mozzarella cheese
Freshly ground black pepper
2 rosemary sprigs, leaves picked
Olive oil, for drizzling
Directions
- Make the dough: Mix the yeast and sugar with 325ml warm water and leave for a couple of minutes. Sift the flour into a bowl, add the salt to the opposite side and make a well. Pour in the oil and yeast mixture. Bring together with a spoon, then work with your hands until a dough forms.
- Knead: Tip onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Place in a floured bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave in a warm place for about 1 hour until doubled in size.
- Shape: Punch out the air, knead for 1 to 2 minutes, then divide into 4 equal balls. Roll each on a floured surface to the size of your frying pan (26cm / 10 inches).
- Cook the base: Pour a little olive oil into a grillproof frying pan over medium heat. Add the pizza base and press down. Cook for 5 to 8 minutes until the base crisps and the dough starts to bubble up.
- Top: Spread 2 tablespoons of passata over the base. Tear half a mozzarella ball into pieces and dot over the top. Season with pepper and scatter rosemary leaves.
- Grill: Drizzle with olive oil and place under a preheated grill for about 4 minutes until golden, bubbling and crisp at the edges. Serve warm with extra rosemary.
FAQs
Why does Ramsay use rosemary instead of basil?
Because the herb goes on before the grill, and basil cannot survive that heat. Basil wilts and blackens within seconds under a direct grill, while rosemary is woody and holds its shape. The rosemary flavour bakes into the melted cheese instead of scorching on top.
On his YouTube video he says to “finish with fresh rosemary,” and on the plate it stays green and fragrant. A classic margherita adds basil after baking, but his method puts the herb under heat, so only rosemary works here.
Why does Ramsay put sugar in the pizza dough?
The sugar feeds the yeast, which makes the dough rise faster and more reliably. It also helps the crust brown, because sugar caramelises in the heat of the pan and gives you colour on the base in 5 to 8 minutes rather than 15.
Most pizza dough recipes use only flour, yeast, salt and water. Ramsay’s tablespoon of golden caster sugar is a small addition that speeds up both the rise and the browning. For his plain pizza dough recipe without sugar, that page compares all four of his dough versions side by side.
What are the other two toppings in this recipe?
The UCC recipe gives three toppings on the same dough. The first alternative is Gorgonzola and radicchio: passata base, crumbled Gorgonzola, shredded radicchio and rosemary. The second is meat and chilli: passata, sliced salami, a sliced red chilli and torn mozzarella.
All three use the frying pan and grill method, and the book says to “build them up in a similar way.” For another baking recipe from the same UCC chapter, the bacon and leek quiche uses the same strong flour and resting principles.
Can I make the dough ahead of time?
Yes. After the first rise and the second short knead, wrap the dough in cling film and chill it. The book says to do exactly this “if not using immediately.” Cold dough is also easier to roll because the gluten has relaxed.
The recipe makes 4 balls, so you can cook two pizzas tonight and keep the others for the next day. Serve them with one of his simple salads for a full meal, or turn leftover dough into a base for flatbreads if you do not want pizza twice.
