Yes. If you install a blank drive, just do a command-option-r boot to Internet Recovery. That will DL a recovery screen where you can use Disk Utility to format the new drive to Mac OS Extended. After that quit Disk Util and click install OS and the 4.7GB OS will DL and install. All this is over the Internet, so it can take some time depending on your Internet speed.
If you want to avoid the DL and speed things up, just attach and external USB drive and make a Time Machine backup. Then once the new drive is installed you can option key boot to the backup, format the new drive, then click restore. This will be much faster as you do not need to DL everything again. It will also put back all you apps and data etc. IMO this is the preferred method.