Verdict: Homemade Italian pizza spans €0.47 to €1.53 per serving — a 3.3× spread. Pizza marinara (€0.47) is cheaper than any pasta except aglio e olio, but requires 2+ hours for dough. Pizza margherita (€1.15) is 2.4× more expensive than marinara — the entire gap is mozzarella. Pizza prosciutto (€1.53) adds prosciutto cotto on top of margherita. All three use identical dough: the cost variable is the topping only.

Homemade Pizza on a Budget — Which Costs the Least?

Three Italian homemade pizzas, ranked by ingredient cost per serving at Italian supermarket prices (Q1 2025). All costs are verified and computable in the Recipe Cost Calculator.

The Cost Ranking

Recipe	Cost/serving	Differentiator
Pizza marinara	~€0.47	No cheese
Pizza margherita	~€1.15	Mozzarella
Pizza prosciutto e mozzarella	~€1.53	Mozzarella + prosciutto cotto

The range spans €0.47 to €1.53 — a 3.3× spread. All three use the same dough. The entire cost difference is topping.

Pizza Marinara — €0.47/serving

The cheapest Italian pizza: dough, canned tomatoes, garlic, olive oil. No cheese, no protein. Approximately €0.47 per serving. The reference point for all pizza cost comparisons — when someone says "pizza costs less than delivery," this is the version they mean.

At €0.47/serving, pizza marinara is cheaper than pasta all'amatriciana, pasta alla carbonara, and most pasta dishes that include protein. It is more expensive than pasta aglio e olio (€0.29) or pasta al pomodoro (€0.38), but the gap is small.

See pizza marinara for the full recipe.

Pizza Margherita — €1.15/serving

The gap between marinara and margherita is exactly the cost of mozzarella. At €12.00/kg, 250g of fior di latte for 4 servings costs €3.00 — approximately €0.75/serving. Add that to the marinara cost and you arrive at €1.15/serving.

Mozzarella represents 65% of margherita's total ingredient cost. The dough, tomato, and oil together cost approximately €0.40/serving regardless of which pizza you make.

See pizza margherita for the full recipe.

Pizza Prosciutto e Mozzarella — €1.53/serving

Pizza margherita plus 100g of prosciutto cotto (€18.00/kg = €1.80 total, approximately €0.45/serving). This is the only structural difference from margherita — and the prosciutto goes on post-bake, not in the oven.

At €1.53/serving, this is the most expensive pizza in the Italian home cooking calculator. It is still less expensive than most restaurant pizzas (€8–14 per pizza at Italian pizzerias).

See pizza prosciutto e mozzarella for the full recipe.

The Shared Dough

All three pizzas use exactly the same dough: 500g farina 00, 7g lievito di birra, water, oil, salt. Cost: approximately €0.60 for 4 servings (€0.15/serving). If you make two of these pizzas on the same evening, you pay the dough cost only once.

Against Delivery

A restaurant pizza margherita in Italy costs €7–10. Homemade margherita costs €4.60 in total ingredients for four servings — a €5–6 per serving saving. For pizza marinara, the saving is even greater. See Homemade pizza vs delivery for a full cost-versus-time analysis.

Use the Calculator

The Recipe Cost Calculator computes exact ingredient cost for all three pizzas above. Adjust serving count to model meals for 2, 4, or 8 people and see how dough cost amortises across more servings.

For a pasta vs pizza comparison, see Pasta vs Pizza: Which Costs Less?.