There’s no craving that hits quite as hard as a pizza craving. Some people always have store-bought pizza dough or, more admirably, have figured out a way to make pizza dough in under 30 minutes. But for most of us, ordering a pie from the local pizzeria is the go-to standard for crushing any cheesy pie-based cravings. However, we have a tip for an option in between: Buying pre-made pizza dough from your local pizza place. While store-bought pizza dough is perfectly passable for a quick weekday meal, shopping local is not only better for the small businesses in your area, but it’s a simple way to get restaurant-quality pizza without restaurant-level effort. The pizza dough at your favorite pizza shop will not only be fresher than anything you can pick up at a grocery store, but it will also have the special sauce — or, um, dough — that makes the pie stand out from your frozen or fast-food fare.
In my 20s, I was lucky enough to live down the street from DeSano Pizza, a Los Angeles-based Neapolitan pizza place with enormous wood-fired ovens and dough made using a centuries-old recipe. When I found out I could walk down the street and buy dough straight from DeSano’s instead of battling LA traffic, not to mention Trader Joe’s parking, to get my go-to pizza dough, it was a game changer. DeSano sells its house-made Napoli pizza dough for around $5 and Trader Joe’s sells a 16-ounce bag of its plain pizza dough for about $1.49. But for me, personally, the added cost was worth the quality and convenience.
How to ensure your pre-made pizza dough shines
Not all pizza shops are willing to part ways with their precious dough so we recommend calling and checking first. If the pizza shops in your area don’t offer their dough for sale, try checking for high-quality pre-made pizza dough at your local bakeries. Getting your hands on excellent pizza dough is half the battle, but you’ll want to make sure you do a few things to set up your pie for success.
First, you can easily improve pre-made pizza dough by taking it out of its packaging — you’ll most likely get your pizzeria-bought pizza dough in a plastic sack — and rolling it into a dough ball. This ball-rolling process will get air into the dough, trapping gasses and making it easier to work with down the line. The next thing you should do is … nothing. Literally. We recommend leaving the dough on your countertop for a few hours to get it to room temperature. You always want to start your baking process with room-temperature dough. This next step is mostly dependent on your toppings (and how much moisture they hold), but we always par-bake our pizza dough to give it a strong base that will hold up to any ingredients you add. For all you out-of-the-box thinkers out there, we have a list of 14 unique dishes you can make with pizza dough that are not, in fact, pizza.
