General Pizza tips & Quick Questions

pollyanna24

I'm trying hard to get my head round OS and do things from scratch as they are better for you and cost less. My latest plan is making pizzas. I want to make 5 pizzas for £5 or less (cos this is how much they are in Iceland at the mo).

But I've been looking on the Tesco website looking at prices of ingredients and can't figure how to do it, i.e.

Making 5 Pizzas for less than £5

Pizza base mix - 0.56 x 5 = £2.80 (but would I need five packets?) 2.8
Mozerella - 2.94 (guessed at three packets)
Tomato Puree - 1.04 (guessed at four tubes)
Tin of tomatoes - thought this might be an option instead of puree, but not sure, plus don't know how many I'd need
Salami 1.74 - guessed at 3 or 4 packets
Cheddar cheese - do I need cheddar as well as mozarella?
Total - 8.52

BargainHunterCat

Why do you need to buy the pizza bases? It's much cheaper to make your own! You can use a basic sugarless scone dough if your baking skills are very limited!

Remember less is more when it comes to toppings. Too many toppings can taste really naff and make your pizza soggy.

Mozarella is a very expensive topping so I'd personally I go cheaper like this:

I mix tomato puree with pesto and spread that on the base then a layer of grated cheddar cheese (not too much!) then some ham & pineapple chunks, a little more grated cheddar, a twist of fresh ground black pepper, a bit of oregano and voila!

4 tubes of puree would be a lot for 5 pizzas! Also forget tinned tomatoes - they are way too soggy unless you drain them over night and even then...

pollyanna24

Thank you.

The pizza base mix is the kind of one you mix with water, wasn't sure how to make it completely from scratch!

What's pesto? Does it come in a jar? Don't think I've ever had that.

What kind of cheese should I use? A lump of cheddar grated?

Got to have some kind of meat on it as a topping, but just salami and the cheese would do.

EDIT: Should have read your post properly, you said to use cheddar, doh. Thanks for the reply. Might give that a go rather than buying them.

madauri

You don't need cheddar unless you're making a double cheese pizza. And you don't need both the puree and the tinned tomato. How much salami do you intend to put on them? I'd say about 4-6 slices on each, although that depends on the size. You'll save by buying a whole salami instead of packets, packaged cold meats are far more expensive than at the counter and whole pieces ofter are good value. Ditto with mozzarella, buy the large bags (but check prices first, I've been surprised sometimes by finding a large pack that was actually more expensive in proportion than a smaller one).
There's a version we used to do at home, it's false pizza and it involves little work and little expense, although it also has little to do with the taste of original pizza! Tasty though:
Line an oven tray with slices of bread (baguette can be used too) and cover with tomato. We used tins of mashed tomato -not puree, which is actually expensive). Then sprinkle to taste with grated cheese. Flavour it with your ingredients of choice - salami, anchovies, olives, bits of roasted pepper, minced meat (better if you cook it first), whatever you fancy, as in any pizza. Put ten minutes to the oven and that's it.

pollyanna24

Plus, can i freeze them before cooking and then cook them from frozen?

The idea is for them to be a quick meal after coming in from work.

BargainHunterCat

pollyanna24 wrote:

Thank you.

The pizza base mix is the kind of one you mix with water, wasn't sure how to make it completely from scratch!

What's pesto? Does it come in a jar? Don't think I've ever had that.

What kind of cheese should I use? A lump of cheddar grated?

Got to have some kind of meat on it as a topping, but just salami and the cheese would do.

Pesto is an Italian sauce made from basil and olive oil. It's quite strong so you don't need more than a couple of teaspoons of it along with a couple of teaspoons of tomato puree to cover a pizza base.
Grated cheddar is fine if you like it. Mild cheddar is always the cheapest.
Salami makes a great topping. You could try cutting up 1 slice of bacon and putting the pieces on your pizza with the salami for some variety.

One of my fave money saving snacks is pitta bread pizzas:

Buy a 6 pack of tesco value pitta bread for about 25p, toast lightly then spread each one thinly with a mix of tomato puree and pesto, cut up a couple of slices of bacon and put on the pittas, sprinkle with grated cheese, add a twist of black pepper, a dash of oregano, pop under the grill for about 5-7 mins until the cheese is melted and the bacon cooked and you're done!!

EDIT: It's so quick you don't need to freeze them!! OH loves them!

[Deleted User]

OOOOOhhhh I just made my first homemade pizza to night it was yummy :T (I'm trying to get organised ie: perfect housewife nearly....!)

It was from one of these threads will post link in a second!

Nicci

[Deleted User]

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=6865

is the link its post 8 by Caterina, It was lovely

squeaky

A selection of a few more of the MANY pizza threads we have around the place...


How do I make pizza?
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=93687

HM pasta sauces and pizza dough
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=79095

Hm pizzas
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=98756

Pizza question
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=78335

Quickest pizza ever!
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=57341


And there are other pizza threads to be found in the Cooking section of the MEGA index sticky.

jcr16

how i make my pizzas is

i use bread maker to make the dough. ( i use tesco value plain flour and it comes out perfect ) then i use tomato ketcup or tin of toms mashed up as a base covering. then i add onions chopped up ( sometimes i slightly fry them first for a different taste ) then i add 3 or 4 slices of chopped up ham , hand full of pineapple chucks 4 or 5 mushrooms chopped up and a small amount of grated mature cheese. then cook for 20 mins or so in oven.
ok so the intital outlay would be more , but u could get 4 or 5 pizza bases from one bag of flour. but certainly so much cheeper.