One of my New Year’s resolutions included a desire to eat more frugally and to shop less.
My aim is to produce meals that cost close to $1.00 per person on a regular basis. Can this be done with a large pizza for two? The following costing is based on my free garden produce, which at this time of the year, is dominated by the prolific zucchini crop, followed by cucumbers, tomatoes and basil.
A Pizza dell’ Orto is my favourite vegetable garden pizza in summer, especially on a hot evening, in giardino, outside under the trees.
The following costing is pretty accurate, without pedantically weighing the olives, anchovies and so on. I buy Extra Virgin Australian olive oil, Cobram 3 litres @ $24.00 a tin), Italian anchovy fillets in oil@ $11.00 for 750 gr and Laucke bakers flour @$11.00 for 5 kilo, pitted black olives @ $16.oo a kilo,and Mozzarella cheese, sliced finely @ $11.00 a kilo.
The dough. ( recipe found here),
- 500 grams of strong bakers flour = $1.10.
- dried active yeast, Olive oil, salt=3o cents.
- half of the dough is used to make a large 35 cm/15 inch pizza for two . The rest is stashed for tomorrow’s foccaccia.
- total cost of pizza dough= 70 cents
The Tomato Sauce
- Can of tomatoes, Italian brand, 60 cents.
- Home grown garlic and oregano.
- Half used on pizza. The rest of the sauce is stashed for another use.
- total cost= 30c
Mr T grills the zucchini and cooks the sauce.
The topping.
- 10 thin slices of Mozzarella, around $1.00
- anchovies from bulk jar and pitted black olives, a handful, around 50 cents.
- Garden produce includes zucchini, cherry tomatoes, basil.
- total cost= $1.50
Total Cost for this Pizza= $2.5o
Time.
- grilling the zucchini and sauce, 10 minutes.
- weighing and mixing the dough, 10 minutes
- rising time ( summer),1.5 hours.
- cooking time, 15 minutes.
The little children and their parents visit often over the lazy summer months. Five large pizzas are enough for a family meal for 8 adults and 5 young children. I usually work on 3- 4 slices per adult and 2-3 slices per child. One of the family favourites is a pissaladiere, the budget South of France model and a pepperoni version for the meat lovers, which is a slightly more costly version.
Feeding my Pizza loving family costs around $15.00 so long as I have the ingredients on hand. The only items purchased from the duopoly chain of Australian supermarkets, Coles and Woolworths, were the flour and the yeast.
ALMOST ITALIAN 
