Toppings can be as pricey or as inexpensive as your budget will bear. For a classic margherita-style pizza, reach for a large can of whole tomatoes ($1.29) instead of pricier tomato sauce, chop, and scatter on the dough. Shred some mozzarella ($2.49 for half a pound), and spread it on top of the tomatoes. When the cheese melts and bubbles, take the pizza out of the oven, and top it with torn fresh basil ($1.49 per bunch).

Or, get creative. At Otto, Mario Batali’s high-end Manhattan pizzeria, they make an incredible vongole pie with whole clams, mozzarella and garlic; he makes another with garlic, olive oil and fresh chiles (ask for an egg on top. It cooks sunnyside up, and that runny yolk is divine.).

At the New England Culinary Institute in Vermont, I recently tasted two non-traditional pizzas made with all local ingredients: feta cheese, spinach and pumpkinseed oil on one, and sliced tomatoes, Vermont bacon and cheddar cheese on the other. They were as tasty as they were unusual.

And though I appreciate Dominos (Stock Quote: DPZ) CEO Dave Brandon’s “super big taste bailout” offer to Main Street Americans, now that I can make creative pizzas for pennies, $15 seems like big bucks for a couple of pies.