Best Spices for Pizza: Oregano, Basil, Garlic

The strictest pizza rulebook there is, the European Union’s specification for Pizza Napoletana, names just garlic and oregano as optional extras, plus fresh basil leaves on the cheese version.¹ American pizza sauces go further, with red pepper flakes, sugar and plenty of dried herbs, and Parmesan often goes on top. Still, the core list is short: oregano, basil, garlic and red pepper flakes. The real question is when each one goes on, and published recipes don’t even agree about the basil.

At a glance

Seasoning	Job on the pizza	Where it usually goes
Oregano	Warm, pungent herbal backbone	In the sauce or sprinkled on the tomato¹²³
Basil	Sweet, fresh herb note; classic with tomato and mozzarella	Fresh leaves on top; dried in some sauces¹²³
Garlic	Savory, pungent depth	Sliced on the tomato, or cooked into the sauce¹³
Red pepper flakes	Heat	In the sauce, or shaken on at the table²⁴
Parmesan	Salt and savory (umami) depth	Grated over the pizza²⁵
Rosemary	Piney, resinous note	Not in the recipes below; a focaccia classic⁶

The Neapolitan baseline

Pizza Napoletana is registered in the EU as a traditional speciality guaranteed (TSG), and its 2010 specification spells out the topping. It allows two garnishes:

Tomato, garlic and oregano: 70 to 100 g of crushed peeled tomatoes, a pinch of oregano, a peeled garlic clove sliced thin over the tomato, salt, and 4 to 5 g of extra virgin olive oil.
Tomato, mozzarella and basil: 60 to 80 g of tomatoes, 80 to 100 g of sliced Mozzarella di Bufala Campana, several fresh basil leaves, and the same measure of oil.

That’s the whole seasoning list. The specification names garlic and oregano as the other ingredients you’re allowed to use, and it expects the basil, garlic and oregano to come out of the oven smelling intense and not looking burnt.¹

Three sauce recipes side by side

American pizza sauces season a lot more heavily than Naples does. Here’s how two King Arthur Baking sauces and an Oregon State University recipe compare:

	King Arthur “Zesty” sauce (about 1 quart)²	King Arthur no-cook sauce (about 1 quart)²	Oregon State KidSpirit (2 large pizzas)³
Tomatoes	One 28-oz can crushed	One 28-oz can crushed	28-oz can crushed plus 6-oz can paste
Oregano	2 tsp dried	None	1/2 tsp dried
Basil	None	1/2 tsp dried	1 tsp dried
Garlic	None	2 cloves, roasted and mashed	2 cloves, minced, cooked in oil 1 to 2 minutes
Red pepper flakes	1 tsp	None	A pinch, optional
Sugar	1 to 2 tsp	None	1 1/2 tsp
Salt	1/2 to 1 tsp	To taste	3/4 tsp
Other	1 1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar, 2 tbsp olive oil	Black pepper, olive oil	Black pepper, 1 tbsp olive oil
Cooking	Simmered 10 to 15 minutes	Not cooked	Simmered 15 to 30 minutes

No single herb wins across all three. One sauce leans on oregano, one on basil, and one uses both. Each is its publisher’s own recipe, not a standard.

The core seasonings and what each one does

Oregano

Oregano tastes warm and pungent, and it’s essential in Italian pizza and pasta sauces. Both cooked sauces above use it dried. That suits a simmered sauce. In America’s Test Kitchen’s trials, dried oregano held up well in dishes cooked more than 20 minutes with a good amount of liquid.⁷ Dried herbs are also stronger than fresh: the University of Delaware’s extension guide counts 3/4 to 1 teaspoon of dried crumbled herb as equal to 2 to 3 teaspoons of fresh.⁸ See cooking with oregano, fresh vs. dried oregano and too much oregano.

Basil

The PROSEA plant handbook notes that basil leaves go into Italian pizzas, pasta, chicken and cheese dishes, and that they have a special affinity with tomatoes.⁹ On the cheese-and-basil Neapolitan pizza, the leaves are fresh and go on before baking.¹ King Arthur’s Neapolitan-style recipe adds fresh basil after the pizza comes out of the oven instead.² Dried basil turns up in two of the sauces.³

The LSU AgCenter groups basil with the delicate herbs that lose flavor under long heat and are best added at the end.¹⁰ That backs the after-baking approach. The Neapolitan specification shows the leaves can survive a very short bake, though. See basil vs. oregano, cooking with basil and too much basil.

Garlic

In Naples, garlic goes on raw, sliced thin over the tomato.¹ The Oregon State sauce cooks minced garlic in oil for a minute or two, just until it’s soft and fragrant,³ and King Arthur’s no-cook sauce roasts whole cloves first and mashes them in.² Watch the pan heat. America’s Test Kitchen warns that garlic added too early to a hot pan burns fast and turns acrid and bitter.¹¹ Garlic powder is a common shortcut in sauces; see garlic powder vs. garlic.

Red pepper flakes

Crushed red pepper is usually made from cayenne, alone or blended with other peppers. The McCormick Science Institute describes it as a finishing sprinkle for pizza and pasta that often lives on the kitchen table, and notes that ground cayenne is typically hotter than flakes, so use less if you swap.⁴ King Arthur’s zesty sauce cooks a full teaspoon into a quart of sauce, while the Oregon State recipe treats a pinch as optional.²³

Parmesan

Mozzarella is the melting cheese. Parmesan is the seasoning cheese. King Arthur’s South Shore bar pizza uses 1/2 cup of finely grated Parmesan and sprinkles about half of it over the pizza.² America’s Test Kitchen calls aged Parmesan unparalleled among cheeses for umami,⁵ and the FDA notes that the free glutamate in foods is chemically the same as the glutamate in MSG.¹² See MSG and MSG substitutes.

Rosemary

None of the sauces above uses rosemary, and it isn’t part of the Neapolitan specification. Its natural home is the bread. America’s Test Kitchen’s focaccia presses small tufts of fresh rosemary deep into the dough before baking.⁶ ATK counts rosemary among the hearty herbs that go in early.¹³ It does the same job on a white pizza or a potato pizza, if you like it there; we found no source that calls for it. See cooking with rosemary.

When to add each seasoning

Seasoning	Before baking	After baking	Source
Oregano	Sprinkled on the tomato, or cooked into the sauce		EU specification; King Arthur; Oregon State¹²³
Fresh basil	Laid on the cheese		EU specification¹
Fresh basil		Scattered on the hot pizza	King Arthur Neapolitan-style²
Garlic	Sliced on the tomato, or cooked into the sauce		EU specification; Oregon State¹³
Red pepper flakes	Cooked into the sauce	Shaken on at the table	King Arthur; McCormick Science Institute²⁴
Parmesan	Sprinkled on before baking		King Arthur South Shore bar pizza²

Both basil methods show up in published recipes. A good starting point: dried oregano in the sauce, fresh basil after baking if your oven runs long and hot, and flakes and grated cheese on the table so everyone can season their own slice.

Commission Regulation (EU) No 97/2010, Pizza Napoletana (TSG), 2010. legislation.gov.uk · Regulator ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰
“Homemade Pizza: From Pan to Neapolitan”, King Arthur Baking workbook. shop.kingarthurbaking.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴
“Red Sauce for Pizza”, OSU KidSpirit, Oregon State University. kidspirit.oregonstate.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹
“Red Pepper”, McCormick Science Institute. mccormickscienceinstitute.com · Merchant ↩ ↩² ↩³
“Getting to Know: Umami Powerhouses”, America’s Test Kitchen (Cook’s Country). americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩²
Andrew Janjigian, “Freshly Milled Wheat Flour Focaccia with Rosemary, Fennel, and Sea Salt”, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩²
“Science: Substituting Dried Herbs for Fresh”, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩
“Using Herbs and Spices”, University of Delaware Cooperative Extension, revised 2025. udel.edu · Reference work ↩
Aguilar, Pham Truong Thi Tho and Oyen, “Ocimum basilicum”, PROSEA. uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩
“Flavorful Herbs”, LSU AgCenter. lsuagcenter.com · Reference work ↩
Liz Bomze, “Why You Should Wait to Add Garlic”, America’s Test Kitchen, 2023. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩
“Questions and Answers on Monosodium glutamate (MSG)”, U.S. Food and Drug Administration. fda.gov · Regulator ↩
Liz Bomze, “Our Guide to Fresh Herbs”, America’s Test Kitchen, 2019. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩

Also drawn on

Oregano, by Anoushka Pant (updated 1 Oct 2026), Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com

The Best Spices for Pizza: Oregano, Basil, Garlic, Red Pepper and Parmesan