Food: Feasts Under $5: Pizza

picture credit: serious eats, nick solares

Pizza, like most delivery food, is easy, cheap, and usually drenched in oil.  If you make your own it’s almost as easy and much, much healthier. And, it even fits into a Feast Under $5.

Classic Cheese Pizza:
1 ball pizza dough (available at any grocery store)
1 jar Pizza Sauce (Enrico’s brand is very good)
8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
a few leaves of fresh basil

I’m not going to explain how to assemble this pizza, but here are some cooking tips: Let the dough come to room temperature before working into a circle. Oil pan (or use cooking spray) before putting dough on top. Pierce dough all over with a fork. Bake at 450 for 15-18 minutes.

Bacon, Arugula, Potato and Tomato Pizza
several slices of bacon, cooked and diced
1 container baby arugula
1 yellow potato, peeled and sliced very thin
1 tomato, sliced
8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
2 tbsp lemon juice

Prepare crust as above, brush with lemon juice. Cover crust with thin layer of cheese, then arrange bacon, potato, tomato, and arugula as you see fit. Cover with another thin layer of cheese. Bake. Voila.

Financial Analysis (ingredients for both pizzas, two pizzas serves 4):
Dough (available at any grocery store): $2.99 x 2
Pizza Sauce: $2.50
1 package bacon: $5.99
1 tomato: .75
1 potato: .75
1 package Arugula: $3.99
16 oz block mozzarella cheese (grate it yourself, its cheaper): $5.99
Basil – pantry staple
Lemon juice – pantry staple
Total: $19.96 or  $4.99 per serving
2 cheese pizzas:  $14.47 or $3.62 per serving
1 cheese pizza: $7.25 or $1.80 per serving (if you’re that odd family who actually thinks 1 pizza serves 4 people)