Ask Chef Monk what her favorite pizza is and she will pause — for exactly one second — before smiling and saying, “The Margherita. Always the Margherita.”

For all her creativity and love of bold experimentation, Chef Monk believes that every great pizza chef must be able to make a perfect Margherita. It is the ultimate test of skill and restraint. There is nowhere to hide.

Tomatoes: The Foundation

Chef Monk sources her tomatoes from Hillside Family Farm, a small operation about twenty minutes from the restaurant. The tomatoes are crushed by hand and seasoned with nothing more than sea salt and a drizzle of olive oil. No cooking, no herbs, no garlic. The tomato does all the talking.

“I tried adding basil to the sauce once,” Chef Monk once said. “My grandmother would have wept.”

The Dough

The dough at Pizza Ritza ferments for a minimum of 48 hours. It is made fresh each day, portioned, and allowed to relax before hand-stretching. The result is a crust that blisters beautifully in our wood-fired oven — charred at the edges, soft and chewy at the center.

The Cheese

We use fresh fior di latte mozzarella — a cow’s milk cheese that melts into silky, creamy pools across the pizza. It is added in torn pieces directly to the dough before the pie goes into the oven.

The Finish

Fresh basil leaves are placed on the pizza the moment it comes out of the oven, while the pie is still steaming. A final drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil ties everything together.

Simple. Perfect. Timeless.

Our Classic Margherita is available every day. It is the first pizza we recommend to anyone visiting Pizza Ritza for the first time.