The $10 Pizza That Beats Any Restaurant
The average delivery pizza costs $18–25 and takes 45 minutes to show up lukewarm at your door. This pizza costs under $10, takes 20 minutes of active work, and tastes better than anything you'll order tonight. Here's exactly how to make it.
The Dough — Under $2
You don't need a pizza shop. You need four ingredients.
- 574g bread flour
- 400g water
- 18g sea salt
- 2g active dry yeast
Mix the dry ingredients. Add the water. Knead for 2–3 minutes. That's it. Cover it and let it bulk ferment for 24 hours at room temperature. The long rest does all the work, developing flavor, structure, and that chew you can't get from a 30-minute dough.
Total cost: under $2.
The Sauce — Under $2
One can of San Marzano tomatoes. Crush them by hand directly into a bowl. Add a pinch of sea salt. Done.
No cooking. No blending. No olive oil. No garlic. Just tomatoes and salt. The heat of the steel does the rest. Head to your favorite market and look for organic crushed tomatoes, or DOP Italian.
Total cost: under $2.
The Cheese — Under $3
Low moisture mozzarella, grated. Not fresh mozzarella, that releases too much water and you'll end up with a soggy pie. Grate it yourself if you can. Skip the pre-shredded, those cheese strands are coated in starch. Use a grater and do it yourself.
Alternatively, head to the deli section of your market and have them slice some low moisture mozzarella. I used sliced for this pizza. See photo below.
Apply it after the sauce. Don't overload it. Less is more.
Total cost: under $3.
The Steel — The Secret Ingredient
This is where most home pizza attempts fall apart. A regular baking sheet or pizza stone doesn't get hot enough, fast enough. Your crust ends up soft, pale, and sad.
The Baking Steel conducts heat 18x faster than ceramic. Slide it into your oven, crank it to max temp (550°F if you have it), and let it preheat for 45 minutes. That's it. You now have a surface that can actually replicate a pizzeria deck oven in your home kitchen.
You only need to buy it once. It lasts forever.
The Launch
Flour your peel. Stretch your dough to 10–12 inches. Sauce it thin. Cheese it light. Launch it onto the steel. Close the oven.
Check it at 5 minutes. It's probably done by 7.
The Result
Crispy bottom. Blistered crust. Leopard char on the edges. Cheese that's golden and bubbling.
This is the pizza you've been trying to make for years.
The Math
| Ingredient | Cost |
|---|---|
| Dough | ~$2 |
| Sauce | ~$2 |
| Cheese | ~$3 |
| Total | ~$7 |
Under $10. 20 minutes of active work. No delivery fee. No tip. No waiting.
Ready to Make It?
The most profound reason we make pizza at home? We make it with people we love. No restaurant can replicate that. The shared experience, the mess, the first bite together — that's what this is really about.
Ready to Make It? Get the steel. Make the pizza. You'll never look at a delivery app the same way.
- The Baking Steel Original — the tool that makes this possible
- The 72-Hour Dough Mix — same recipe, in a bag, just add water
Make it this weekend. You won't order delivery the same way again.
About Andris
In 2012 Andris Lagsdin walked into his family's steel shop in Hanover, Massachusetts with one idea: he wanted to make a piece of steel feel alive. What started as a Kickstarter project became the Baking Steel®, the original pizza steel for home ovens, now used by hundreds of thousands of home cooks around the world.
He's been making pizza on steel for 14 years. He teaches free pizza classes a few times a month on Zoom and created the 72-Hour Pizza Dough Mix because great dough shouldn't require a culinary degree.
The mission hasn't changed since 2012. He still just wants to make a piece of steel feel alive.
