How To Make Take-Out Level Pizza At-Home

While going out to get a slice or an entire pie is always delicious, it’s not always in the budget to go out to eat whenever you’re craving pizza. Eating out isn’t always the healthiest, and it also isn’t the most budget-friendly, so learning to cook the take-out foods you love in your own kitchen makes a big difference.

Whether you’re more of a cooking novice or have some experience cooking, there are some general tips you can incorporate to help you make mouthwatering pizza from the comfort of your own kitchen. 

Get The Right Tools

One reason restaurants often make better pizza than you have is that they have more specific tools designed for the job. Of course, you likely won’t be able to invest in all of these kitchen appliances, but there are various options for cookware and utensils to make a better pizza. 

If you don’t have a big budget for kitchen supplies, you can start with some basic tools like parchment paper or a pizza stone. But, if you want to upgrade even further, you can look at appliances like a pizza oven. 

Five Ways To Cook Delicious Pizza At Home

If you’re looking for some concrete tips to improve your pizza-making skills, start with these five tips that cooking experts swear by:

1. Cook on a surface that’s already preheated: One of the best things to do to create an upscale, artisanal feel is to preheat your pan or cookware first. You can use a pizza stone, baking sheet, or something else. You just need to ensure the pan sits in the oven for around half an hour before adding the dough. Make sure to use parchment paper between the pan and the dough.
2. Use high temperatures: While you might keep your oven around 350 degrees for most dishes, pizza ovens are hot. Try bumping up the temperature to around 500 degrees.
3. Stretch the dough: Instead of rolling out the dough, go the classic route and stretch it out. Food Network recommends creating a dough ball and pulling it out from the center. 
4. Coat the crust with a blend: Most places recommend using a brush to gently coat the crust with olive oil or a garlic oil mix. This will add flavor and color. You can also experiment with different blends to find the flavor you like the most. 
5. Go easy on the toppings: Start with your layer of sauce and then spread out the toppings evenly. You might not need to overdo it as much as you’d think to create the right balance of toppings to the dough. Many popular kinds of pizza, like Margherita, only have minimal toppings that balance out a thinner dough.

The above five steps are pretty simple to follow and will significantly improve the taste of your homemade pizza. You’ll start to see how the pizza is more like restaurant quality. You might even find you like the pizza you make at home better than a lot of the take-out pizza you had before. 

Experiment With Flavors And Toppings

Finally, one of the main pros of cooking your own pizza at home is that you can easily make the kind of pizza you want and even experiment with various toppings. 

While you might start with more typical pizza setups like a tomato-based red sauce and pepperoni, you can soon try different sauces or more creative dishes. You’re in charge, so you get to make everything to your taste.