Make pizza at home on whatever base the time allows. With 15 minutes, top naan, pita, tortillas or English muffins and bake them hot. With about 40 minutes, use a ball of store-bought dough. With almost no energy, add fresh toppings to a frozen pizza. If what you want is an easy dinner rather than pizza itself, a pizza-flavored skillet or pasta bake gets you there with one pan.
Which option fits the time you have?
Pick by the clock, not by ambition. The times below are rough totals, oven preheat included.
| Option | Rough total time | What you need | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flatbread pizzas | 15 minutes | Naan, pita, tortillas or English muffins, sauce, cheese | Tired weeknights, one or two people |
| Store-bought dough pizza | 35 to 45 minutes | A ball of refrigerated dough, sauce, cheese, toppings | A family-size pizza that feels like the real thing |
| Upgraded frozen pizza | 15 to 25 minutes | A frozen pizza plus one or two fresh toppings | Nights with no energy at all |
| Homemade dough | 10 minutes of work, made hours ahead | Flour, yeast, salt, water, oil | Weekends, or when you plan pizza night in advance |
| Pizza-flavored pasta bake or skillet | 25 to 35 minutes | Pasta, sauce, cheese, the toppings you would put on a pizza | Wanting the flavor without shaping dough |
If anyone you are feeding has a food allergy, check the label on the base, the sauce and every topping.
How do you make flatbread pizza in 15 minutes?
Flatbread pizza is the fastest route because the crust is already baked. You are only melting cheese and heating toppings.
- Heat the oven to around 425°F to 450°F with a baking sheet inside, so the base crisps from below.
- Spread a thin layer of sauce on each base. Too much sauce makes a thin base soggy.
- Add cheese, then toppings that cook quickly: sliced pepperoni, jarred peppers, olives, onions sliced thin, leftover cooked vegetables or meat.
- Bake until the cheese melts and the edges brown, usually 6 to 10 minutes. Thinner tortillas take less time than naan.
- Finish with anything that should stay fresh, such as basil, arugula, chili flakes or a drizzle of olive oil.
Tortillas give a cracker-thin crust, naan and pita a soft, chewy one, and English muffins a small round that is easy to portion for one person.
How do you get store-bought dough to behave?
Refrigerated dough is the closest home version of a takeout pie, and most of the trouble with it comes from using it cold.
- Let it warm up. Leave the dough on the counter, covered, for 30 to 60 minutes. Cold dough springs back when you stretch it.
- Stretch, don't roll. Press from the center outward with your fingertips and leave a thicker rim. A rolling pin squeezes out the air that makes the crust light.
- Oil the pan. A sheet pan with a tablespoon of olive oil gives a crisp, almost fried bottom without a pizza stone.
- Go light on toppings. Three toppings is plenty. Wet toppings like fresh mushrooms or tomatoes release water and leave the middle undercooked.
- Don't taste the dough. The FDA says to never eat or taste raw flour, dough or batter, because flour is a raw food and only cooking makes it safe. Wash your hands and the counter after shaping it.
How do you make a frozen pizza taste less frozen?
A frozen pizza is the lowest-effort option, and a few additions make it taste closer to a fresh one.
- Bake it on a preheated sheet pan rather than straight on the rack, and follow the package's oven temperature and time.
- Add one fresh topping before baking: sliced onion, peppers, spinach or extra cheese.
- Add one fresh finish after baking: basil, a squeeze of lemon, chili flakes, grated parmesan or a little hot honey.
- Serve it with a bagged salad or raw vegetables so one pizza stretches further.
What does homemade pizza cost compared with delivery?
It depends on your stores and your order, so here is the arithmetic with example prices. The table below uses example prices, not quotes from any store or restaurant. Swap in what you actually pay.
| Item, example price | Cost for one large pizza |
|---|---|
| Refrigerated dough ball, $3.00 | $3.00 |
| Jar of pizza sauce, $3.00, half used | $1.50 |
| Shredded mozzarella, 8 oz, $3.50 | $3.50 |
| Pepperoni, $4.00 package, half used | $2.00 |
| Homemade total | $10.00 |
| Delivered large pizza, $20 menu price plus $5 in fees and a $4 tip | $29.00 |
In this example the delivered pizza costs $19 more. Fees, tips and menu markups vary a lot by app and restaurant; why food delivery is so expensive breaks down where that money goes. To compare by the serving rather than by the pie, see price per serving vs price per pound.
The gap has been growing. Restaurant prices rose faster than grocery prices over the year: the Consumer Price Index for September 2026 shows food away from home up 3.5% over 12 months, against 1.8% for food at home. USDA's Food Price Outlook, updated September 25, 2026, forecasts the same pattern for all of 2026: 3.5% for food away from home and 2.4% for food at home.
How do you make the next pizza night easier?
The nights you order pizza are usually the nights you have not decided anything else. A little setup makes the home version the easier choice next time.
- Keep a pizza shelf. A pack of flatbreads or tortillas, a jar of sauce and one long-keeping topping such as pepperoni or jarred peppers means a 15-minute pizza is always possible. Add cheese to the shopping list every week you plan one.
- Make two and freeze one. Wrap the second pizza and get it into the fridge or freezer within 2 hours of baking; USDA FSIS says leftovers must be refrigerated within 2 hours and hot food can go straight in. FoodSafety.gov's cold storage chart gives pizza 3 to 4 days in the fridge and 1 to 2 months in the freezer, and notes that freezer times are for quality only; food kept frozen at 0°F or below can be kept indefinitely.
- Put pizza night on the plan. A planned pizza night is just another dinner on the plan. Meal planning for the week shows how to give each night a meal.
Where MealMaxx fits
In MealMaxx you can browse meals and add them to your week's plan, or swap any planned meal for another, and each meal shows its estimated cost per serving. It also shows what cooking saved you compared with ordering in.
