I feel like we need to have a serious conversation about pizza.
You can make it a home no with no toppings for about $2.77.
You can use leftovers for toppings. But even if you pay for toppings, trying to fit more than $0.30 worth of any topping on a pizza is pretty hard.
On the left you have carpet Frozen meatballs with leftover bell peppers and some Thyme-leaved Sandwort I cleared out of a raised garden bed to make room for planting some garlic.
On the right we have your traditional bell pepper, pepperoni and Olive
All together these things are probably about $3.20 per person.
Instead of using bread dough for my pizza crust I made actual pizza crust dough. It has oregano and basil mixed in to the dough.
I’ve always been intimidated by the prospect of trying to make pizza but hadn’t considered that it might be affordable to trow together myself- does anyone have advice on where to start to make a really basic one?
Recipies, advice, suggestions would all be welcome :)
Find a crust recipe that seems doable to you. You can find really detailed ones. You can find really vague ones. Normally I make a big old batch of bread dough and put it in the fridge. The closer to 2 weeks old it gets the better for pizza crust it works. In this case I made an actual pizza crust recipe. You can make pizza out of all kinds of bread though. Pizza bagels, pizza on Wonder bread, pizza on naan. Whatever is convenient and works for you. There’s always English muffins too.
If you’re going for a dough you’re probably going to need some kind of rolling pin. You’re going to want a nice, smooth flat surface. You’re going to want to take a fork. Put little holes all over the place in the dough to stop it from puffing up when you cook. Unless you’re going with a traditional Italian pizza.
You need sauce. You can buy pizza sauce in a jar at Walmart for pretty darn cheap. It’ll last more pizzas than you think. You can make your own sauce with a little bit of tomato sauce and tomato paste. You can go crazy with pizza sauce and make it from scratch with garden tomatoes. Find the jar or recipe that works for you.
You need cheese. Do not use the low moisture skim milk cheese that’s $2 at Walmart. Find the whole milk mozzarella that cost almost twice as much. But it only cost twice as much because it’s 16 oz instead of 8 oz. It’s usually next to the Mexican cheese section. It’ll melt and Brown properly. For a 12-in pizza you need about 6 oz out of that 16 oz block.
Test your oven. Can it get up to 500°? Can it get really close to 500°? If you can get a piece of metal in there on the bottom rack that’ll make life a little better. Cast iron pan. Sheet of stainless steel. Whatever you got.
Figure out your toppings. Kitchen scraps. Leftovers. That 2 lb bag of pepperoni that the local meat store sells for $3. Bacon crumbles. Leftover peppers that you tossed in the freezer. Corporate meatballs fried up in the air fryer and then sliced. Whatever you got. Whatever you want.
But be aware that some things are going to juice out a little and mess up the browning If they’re not thin enough. And that is a trick you got to learn. Is that no matter how thick you think you want your bell peppers and mushrooms? You actually want them super thin so they cook up and don’t release a whole bunch of water.
Did you put red pepper flakes on your finished Pizza when you get it delivered or go to a shop? Sprinkle it on before you cook it.
Don’t overthink it. Just make something that looks like pizza.