A few weeks ago, I ordered pizza from our local joint, a no-frills strip mall. With a few extras and added spread, our casual dinner for four set me back about $60. What's worse, the pizza wasn't even very good.
This was not an isolated incident: restaurants and customers are feeling the pinch of food inflation. A report in San Francisco Chronicle confirms: Pizza (along with everything else) is getting more expensive. Charting data from six pizzerias over seven years, the paper reported that the price is going up, up, up. A slice of cheese pizza now costs 30% more than it did in 2016, with some spots topping the charts at $6.50 a slice (!). Overall, prices in restaurants and other restaurants have increased by 5.1% compared to January 2023.
If you feel like you're spending more on food, you're right: The Wall Street Journal recently reported to have been 30 years since food ate up so much of our income. And while food in general has become more expensive around the world, eating out will always be much more expensive than cooking at home. Which brings us back to pizza.
After the sticker shock of my delivery pizza died down, I had a solution: From here on out it's homemade pizza for us. Not only because homemade pizza is cheap to make, but also because it's better than almost anything you might have delivered.
Food photography and styling by Liz Neily
I have long been a believer of ours Crispy Cheesy Pan Pizza. It's crunchy, it's cheesy, it's easy: Make the dough the night before, shape it in a cast iron pan a few hours before you want to eat it. Fresh from the oven, this pizza—crispy-topped with a puffy interior—is a marvel. Also a surprise? All the ingredients needed to make a 10″ pizza will cost you about four dollars: That's 70 cents for the flour, 68 cents for the pizza sauce, another 50 cents for the olive oil, yeast and salt, and about $2.00 for mozzarella. There you have it: A really great homemade pizza for about the same cost as a single slice at the pizzeria.
It's not even an anomaly. our Pick-Your-Pan-Pizza, the recipe I turn to when I want great same-day pizzas and don't feel like shaping the dough, it's also about $4 – for two (!) 10″ pizzas (or a half-sheet pan or 9″ x 13″).
And if I'm not sure exactly what night of the week will be pizza night, I make ours Artisanal no-knead pizza crust, which is so simple that I have my kids make the dough. It is ready in 24 hours, but will keep for five days in the refrigerator; It costs about $1.25 to make the dough, which yields two 10″ to 12″ pizzas. Even with cheese and toppings, the cost per pizza comes to about $5.
Refills are another place where you can be frugal. Cheese is the most expensive part of the pizza (and I don't suggest splurging there), but you can save money by choosing vegetables instead of pepperoni or salami, or reusing leftovers, like steamed broccoli from last night's dinner. the last handful of spinach, or the dregs of a jar of pesto.
In addition to the aforementioned favorites, there's a pizza for every personality: We've got Sourdough pizza recipe, Gluten free pizza recipe, Detroit style pizza recipe; and more. What do they all have in common? They are cheaper than shipping.
If you're thinking there's no way you'll find time to make homemade pizza on a weeknight, there are shortcuts: Make a big batch of dough and freeze it; The night before you want the pizza, thaw the dough in the refrigerator, then top and bake. Here's our guide on how to do it.
Photography by Kristin Teig; food styling by Liz Neily
But maybe you want more than dough. Maybe you want a frozen pizza, ready and waiting for you when life gets busy. Frozen pizza is a $7 billion industry; According to industry statistics, 1 in 3 American freezers has a store-bought frozen pizza. And while they're convenient, they're usually not that tasty and often contain some surprising ingredients, including palm oil and caramel coloring. They are also not necessarily affordable; often the less expensive frozen pizzas are so small that they are essentially a single serving (meaning you need several to feed a family, increasing the total cost), while the more expensive so-called “premium pizzas” large ones can set you back between $9. and $20, double (or quadruple!) the cost of making a pizza at home. But if you make your own frozen pizzayou can control what goes in and on it, resulting in a fresher-tasting pie that's customized to your liking.
They say you have to spend money to make money. Well it turns out, sometimes you have to make dough to save dough too.
For the cost of a few delivery pizzas, you can learn to make pizza at home, forever! Learn all the tips and tricks for the perfect pizza on our site Pizza class on request.
Cover picture (South Shore Bar Pizza) by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne
