You can easily have pizza night at home when you make this Homemade Pizza From Store Bought Dough recipe. It still counts as homemade because you are shaping the dough, just not making it.
For more ideas of what to make, check out all of our recipes.
The very first recipe we ever posted on Drugstore Divas was a homemade pizza recipe. Pete, who was only my boyfriend then (so, yes, it was a few lifetimes ago) wanted to kick our food column off with homemade pizza.
We wanted it to be a pizza that was easy enough for everyone, so we used store-bought pizza dough. It’s so much easier than making your own dough. And you get a great pizza every time.
Sure, we do make our own pizza dough often. But, for the best results, you have to make the dough the night before, let it proof, and then work with it the next day. That’s too much work for a weeknight dinner.
So, if you want pizza tonight, this Homemade Pizza From Store Bought Dough is the way to go.
This is just one of the pizza recipes we have on Drugstore Divas. For more ideas, check out our list of The Ultimate List Of Homemade Pizza Recipes.
Homemade Pizza From Store Bought Dough Recipe
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Homemade Pizza From Store Bought Dough Ingredients:
You can get the full list of ingredients with measurements in the recipe card below.
- Fresh, store-bought pizza dough – You can find this in the grocery store near where the refrigerated pizzas are.
- Olive oil
- Pizza sauce – You can use whatever brand/flavor your family prefers.
- Mozzarella cheese – You want a block of cheese that you shred yourself. Pre-shredded cheese doesn’t melt like a block of cheese does, so we don’t recommend the bagged cheese.
- Italian seasoning
How To Make Homemade Pizza From Store Bought Dough:
Preheat the oven to 425 F. Preheat it with a pizza stone inside.
Drizzle a little bit of olive oil onto the pizza dough.
Shape the dough into a ball and put it in a large bowl to warm for at least 15 minutes.
Quick note: The olive oil will prevent the dough from sticking to the sides of the bowl.
Add a little bit of cornmeal to the top of a pizza peel. If you don’t have cornmeal, a little flour will work.
Stretch your ball of dough until you form a round crust.
Now, I’ll be honest. I could sit here and give you a good stretching technique and explain to you how I push and pull the dough without using a rolling pin. However, this Instagram video explains it so much better than I can.
When the dough is shaped, put it on the preheated pizza stone and bake for seven minutes.
While that’s baking, shred the mozzarella cheese. Set it aside.
When the pizza is done, remove it using the pizza peel.
Pour the olive oil on top and brush it around the center using a pastry brush.
Add the pizza sauce and spread it around.
Add the shredded mozzarella cheese.
Quick note: You can add your favorite toppings at this step. I made this a cheese pizza just to keep it basic, but you can make it however you want.
Bake the pizza for another seven minutes until the dough it a golden brown and the cheese is completely melted.
Remove the pizza from the oven and top with Italian seasoning. Let the hot pizza sit a minute or two before cutting and serving.
Homemade Pizza From Store Bought Dough: Frequently Asked Questions
You can buy pre-made pizza dough in the refrigerated section, where the pre-made pizzas are, of any of your local grocery stores. Personally, I buy the 16 oz. dough from Walmart and cut it in half to make two smaller Neapolitan-like pizzas with different toppings.
Sometimes, the pizza dough is a little bit frozen. It’s not frozen dough, but the stores store it frozen and let it defrost on the shelf. If that happens to you, just let it warm up in the fridge overnight before using it.
You can buy any dough you like, however, I’ve heard the pizza dough from ALDI is really sticky. So, because of that, I haven’t tried it (even though I usually love ALDI products).
Store bought pizza dough doesn’t need to rise like homemade dough does, but it does need to warm to room temperature. While it’s waiting in the fridge or in a bowl coming to room temperature, it will rise. But, you don’t have to let it sit out to rise and increase in size.
You really want to make sure you don’t skip the step that says to leave the pizza dough out to warm to room temperature. It’s so much easier to stretch warm raw dough. The gluten in cold pizza dough is tight and can result in the dough tearing.
Since it’s only sitting out for a little bit, you don’t have to worry about covering it with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel (like you do when you make your own homemade pizza dough), but you can if you want.
Pizza is usually baked at high temperatures (as high as 1,000 F) and a home oven just doesn’t go that high. So, to get that crispy crust you want, but at home, a pizza stone helps. It warms up while you preheat the oven and mimics a brick oven as it bakes the pizza.
We make pizza a lot, so we just let the pizza stone live in our oven and move it when we’re cooking anything else.
If you don’t have a pizza stone, you could use a cast iron pan or an inverted baking sheet instead. We also have a Detroit-style pizza pan that we use sometimes as well.
I bring this up every time cheese comes up, but we don’t suggest using pre-shredded cheese in homemade pizza. Bagged cheese has preservatives in it so that the cheese doesn’t clump together in the bag. The trouble with that is those preservatives prevent the cheese from melting properly.
So, in a recipe like this, where you want that melty cheese, you want to shred your own cheese from a block of cheese.
Wait until the pizza has cooled down to room temperature, then store it in an airtight container.
The best way to reheat pizza is in an air fryer. We do it at 360 F for about three to four minutes.
Homemade Pizza From Store Bought Dough
You can easily have pizza night at home when you make this Homemade Pizza From Store Bought Dough recipe. It still counts as homemade because you are shaping the dough, just not making it.
Ingredients
- 8 oz. fresh pizza dough
- 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/4 cup pizza sauce
- 4 oz. mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 F. Preheat it with a pizza stone inside.
- Drizzle a little bit of olive oil onto the pizza dough.
- Shape the dough into a ball and put it in a large bowl to warm for at least 15 minutes.
- Add a little bit of cornmeal to the top of a pizza peel. If you don’t have cornmeal, a little flour will work.
- Stretch your ball of dough until you form a round crust.
- When the dough is shaped, put it on the preheated pizza stone and bake for seven minutes.
- While that’s baking, shred the mozzarella cheese. Set it aside.
- When the pizza is done, remove it using the pizza peel.
- Pour the olive oil on top and brush it around the center using a pastry brush.
- Add the pizza sauce and spread it around.
- Add the shredded mozzarella cheese.
- Bake the pizza for another seven minutes until the dough it a golden brown and the cheese is completely melted.
- Remove the pizza from the oven and top with Italian seasoning. Let the hot pizza sit a minute or two before cutting and serving.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Yield
4Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 252Total Fat 11gSaturated Fat 4gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 6gCholesterol 22mgSodium 436mgCarbohydrates 28gFiber 1gSugar 2gProtein 10g
Have you made Homemade Pizza with store-bought dough? Let us know how it went in the comments.
Silvia
Wednesday 19th of March 2025
This is a great recipe! Using Homemade Pizza Dough really makes a difference in flavor and texture. I’ve heard that a good pizza oven can help achieve that perfect crust and authentic taste. Has anyone tried making pizza in a high-heat oven?