There are a lot of reasons why homemade pizza is better than store-bought one, from the dough to the sauce to the toppings. Making pizza at home may seem like a daunting task, but once you learn how you will never want to eat store-bought pizza again. You will be impressed with the flavor and proud of your cooking skills.
Of course, making homemade pizza is fun and lets you get creative in the kitchen, but many don’t realize that making pizza at home saves money. Ingredients like flour, yeast, tomato paste, vegetables, and pepperoni add up to a fraction of the cost of getting store-bought pizza.
So while many start making pizza at home because it’s cost-effective, especially when feeding a crowd, many continue making pizza at home because it’s so good.
If you were wondering why homemade pizza is better than store-bought, we have compiled a list of our top eleven reasons we love making homemade pizza.
Your Pizza Dough Will Be Better
1. Gluten-Free or Yeast-Free
You can control what goes in the dough, which is very important to anyone with dietary restrictions or who just prefers to avoid certain ingredients like gluten or yeast. Gluten-free dough is easy to make, and yeast-free dough is an excellent alternative to regular dough when you don’t have time to wait for the dough to rise.
You can make dough healthier by using whole wheat flour too. If you are on a low-carb or keto diet, you can enjoy pizza and still remain true to your diet when you make pizza at home.
2. Use Pita or Naan
You can get creative with crusts. Try making Naan pizza or Pita pizza instead of traditional pizza dough. When you make pizza at home, you can use a non-traditional pizza base and create your own style that is perfect for your pizza mood.
3. Season Your Dough
Do you like your homemade pizza dough with a bit of crushed red pepper? Or prefer dough with a healthy helping of roasted garlic?
Well, another reason homemade pizza is better than store-bought is that you can add herbs and spices to the dough. Add in extra salt or pinch of curry or a healthy sprinkle of Italian seasonings. You can do it all.
Your Pizza Sauce Will Be Better
4. Homemade Marinara is Always Better
Of course, homemade pizza sauce is better than store-bought pizza sauce. It has a fuller flavor and deep richness than you can only get from a homemade red sauce. So channel your inner nonna and make your own pizza sauce for your homemade pizza! Do it. Put that Prego away, mom.
5. Use a Variety of Sauces
If you are like us, you know creativity rules the kitchen. There are no hard rules in pizza, and everything is fair game as long as it’s delicious. We love experimenting with different sauces on our homemade pizzas like pesto, Alfredo, BBQ, and even a chili peanut sauce.
Store-bought pizza just doesn’t have the variety and is frankly quite boring, just another reason homemade pizza is better than store-bought.
Your Cheese Will Be Better
6. Can Use Exotic Cheeses
Most store-bought pizza uses the traditional low-moisture mozzarella, which is unfortunate because there are so many amazing cheeses to try. When you make pizza at home, you can try adding smoked gouda or cheddar.
You can use crumbly cheese like Feta or creamy Mascarpone or pungent blue cheese or chunks of goat cheese, or Gruyere. You can even use homemade mozzarella on your homemade pizza.
The possibilities here are endless, so make pizza at home and mix and match your favorite cheese for an unforgettable pie.
7. Or Go Cheese-Free
Or don’t use cheese at all. If you are vegan or lactose intolerant or just need to limit your dairy intake, when you make pizza at home, you can easily accommodate the cheese or non-cheese factor.
Your Toppings Will Definitely Be Better
8. Control Amount of Toppings
Do you like to put all of the toppings on your pizza? Does the idea of a pizza with pepperoni, sausage, ham, peppers, mushrooms, onions, jalapeños, olives, artichokes, and pineapple get you excited?
Or do you like a simple pizza with one or two quality toppings like arugula and smoked salmon? Whichever type of pizza floats your boat. You can make it.
Homemade pizza lets you make unusual pizza toppings combinations that satisfy you. Then you can choose for yourself which pizza topping combos are the best.
9. Be Creative
We love making pizzas at home because it’s a way to get some creativity into our lives. Cooking is considered an art form, and we love art, especially edible art. So make more things at home, let your right brain get to work, and make pizza however you like.
Make a Chicago-style deep dish crust with healthy California pizza toppings or a crispy cracker St. Louis-style crust with Connecticut white clam toppings. There are no wrong answers here. So relax, and you will truly understand why homemade pizza is better than store-bought.
Homemade pizza lunchables are even better than store-bought ones.
10. Be Healthy
We are just going to come right out and say it: homemade pizza is better than store-bought because it is healthier. Store-bought pizza has more preservatives, salt, and unwanted sugar from crust to sauce, but when you make pizza at home, you know every ingredient that goes into it.
You can make healthy substitutions, add more vegetables cut smaller slices, and keep the grease to a minimum. Pizza doesn’t have to be a forbidden food; making a healthy pizza at home is a great way to take control of your health and still indulge in the most perfect food ever.
What’s your favorite reason why homemade pizza is better than store-bought?