The margherita is not just a pizza. It’s a litmus test. Limited to dough, tomato sauce, mozzarella, salt, basil and olive oil, a margherita instantly reveals a pizzeria’s commitment to the art of the pie. A margherita forgives no shortcut. Is your dough dry and devoid of flavor? Are you too cheap to buy San Marzano tomatoes grown in the volcanic soil near Mount Vesuvius? Do you try to skate by with squeaky, tasteless mozzarella? A margherita will rat you out at every turn.

“Whenever I go to a pizza shop, that’s what I order,” says Frank Linn, the owner and pizzaiolo of Frankly . . . Pizza! in Kensington, Md. “That’s the best way to know what the chef is all about.” A great margherita is simple, and it is complex: It is dependent on a few ingredients and techniques, any one of which, if imperfect or imperfectly followed, can dull the quality of a pie. A dough that’s not developed or handled properly can devolve into a coarse, crackerlike base, unfit for any topping.