How Pizza Can (Help) Save the Planet

Whether it’s New York, Neapolitan, Chicago, California, or Detroit; thin, thick, soft, or stuffed; wood-fired, frozen, grilled, or oven baked; cheese, veggie, meat, or supreme; with or without pineapple — pizza can save the planet, and you can help.

The Problem: Household Food Waste

To understand the solution, it helps to discuss the problem, which in this case is the 492 to 1,032 pounds of food wasted in the US each year, per person. Put differently, food waste accounts for losses comparable to the water use and power consumption of 50 million American homes, farmland equivalent to the size of California and New York combined, and the CO2 emissions of 42 coal-fired power plants. Of course, individuals alone aren’t wasting that much food. That number accounts for everything lost “during all stages of the food supply chain,” but roughly half that amount is lost after food has left the store. That’s why, in 2015, the United States announced the 2030 Food Loss and Waste Reduction Goal of halving the amount of food loss per person by 2030.

So what can pizza do? Don’t laugh. It can help you eat your leftovers. Simple? Sure, but incredibly effective. Over the years, I’ve put a little bit of everything on pizza, and it’s almost always great. Leftover veggies are an obvious choice — and, combined with fruit, they account for 40 percent of household food waste — but pizza is a powerful wizard: It can transform almost any leftovers into something magical.

The Solution: Leftovers on Pizza

For a case study, let’s consider last night’s leftover chicken. Pair it with the half a bottle of barbecue sauce cluttering your fridge door and the single red onion that’s been patiently waiting in your pantry and you’ve got a crave-able treat. Or put it on a pie with the last of your spaghetti sauce, that slightly soft jalapeño you’ve been saving, and some crispy crumbled bacon for a mouth-watering meal. Not your style? Maybe mix it with the last olives in the jar, the capers you never use, the old artichoke hearts on your shelf, and a little garlic for a marvelous Marbella ‘za.

But maybe you don’t eat chicken. That’s fine too. You can go with a good old-fashioned supreme and use up those stray veggies in the corners of your crisper drawer. If you’ve been watching Chef’s Table: Pizza (like me), you could also try Chris Bianco’s pizza Rosa, a deceptively simple pie topped with rosemary, red onions, and pistachios. If you want to get fancy, caramelize a pile of yellow onions and cover it with thick pear slices; topped off with a drizzling of balsamic reduction, that pizza is incredible.

I’ve used pulled pork on pizzas. I’ve eaten charcuterie pizzas. I recently had a curry pizza. No matter what tops it, pizza persists in greatness. Even if you’re not trying to save the planet, pizza can help you save money, especially if it’s homemade. All you need is some flour, water, salt, and yeast for a delicious crust. Combine that with a sauce of slowly simmered San Marzano tomatoes and top it with some mozzarella and basil and you’ve made a classic Margherita pizza. It’s an instant Pantry Staple.

The best part is that pizza, on top of being flexible, is also accessible. If you’re interested, I’ve listed a few ways you can get started with your pizza pursuits, but the list isn’t exhaustive. Pizza how you pizza, or try some ideas below.

5 Pizza Projects You Can Try at Home

1. Use a frozen pizza. This may be one of the most accessible options out there. Just buy a couple of cheese pizzas (since cheese is usually the cheapest), leave them in your freezer until you have some leftovers, then load it up, top with a little extra cheese (to help your new toppings stay in place), and bake it according to the package instructions. (For an equally accessible option, do the same thing with pre-made pizza crust.) Easy!
2. Cook a quick and easy pizza crust. Before I got my pizza stone (more on that below), I used this recipe for a simple homemade crust. It’s the workhorse of homemade pizzas, and it’s where I learned that any leftovers are great on a pie.
3. Make a cast-iron deep dish. This is a method I haven’t tried, but my brother has mastered this technique. It uses a homemade crust and, again, whatever toppings you want. Here’s a recipe to get you started, but remember that you can tailor this to your pantry as needed.
4. Try grilling your pizza. If trends continue, 2023 will be another warm year. While that fact has some serious (and ominous) implications, it might also mean more time at a grill. And you can use that time to help the earth by tossing those leftover veggies and meats on a pizza. NYT Cooking has a recipe for grilled pizza that uses store-bought dough, but you can also make it yourself by trying Simply Recipes’ version.
5. Play around with a pizza stone (or baking sheets). I do this almost every other week because it’s so good. This baking stone with this pizza dough and this sauce has made my at-home pizza restaurant quality, which is not something I say lightly. (I live in Durham, NC, and if there’s one thing we have, it’s pizza places a plenty — each great in its own way.) The basic process with a stone is simple: Get it really hot (I preheat mine at 550º for an hour) then cook your pizza quickly. It leaves you with bubbly cheese on an airy but crisp crust. You can try this with baking sheets, too, but I’ve found them less reliable and far messier.

Go forth and enjoy. And if you try a pizza, let me know how it goes.