I’m half Italian and I freely admit that I’m a bit of a pizza connoisseur. I grew up in southern Connecticut, between New Haven and New York City, so great pizza was never hard to find. On top of that, I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to southern Italy more than a dozen times, where you can get some of the best pizza in the world for surprisingly little money. On our recent trip to Naples, we stopped at L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele, one of Naples’ most famous pizzerias and had delicious whole pizzas for just €6 ($6.83 USD).
So when I tell you Costco pizza isn’t exactly my favorite, you know where I’m coming from.
I didn’t even become a Costco member until I had kids about 10 years ago. A few years later, I tried Costco pizza for the first time at one of their friends’ birthday parties. My verdict? It did the job.
But here’s the thing: Costco pizza absolutely serves a purpose. A whole 18-inch pizza is just $9.99, which is pretty remarkable these days. Where I live in Los Angeles, a pizza from a solid restaurant can easily cost $25 or more.
And my kids friends actually prefer Costco pizza to many of the more expensive pizzas. So why should I spend two or three times as much when they’re perfectly happy with the $9.99 pie? I also know plenty of parents who genuinely love Costco pizza.But I recently came across a video from @itsdoughguy (embedded above) that may have found a way to turn Costco pizza into something even a pizza snob like me can get excited about.
How to give Costco pizza a serious upgrade
@itsdoughguy starts with a whole Costco pepperoni pizza and asks the food court not to cut it. That makes sense because he’s about to put the whole thing back in the oven.
His first observation is one of my biggest complaints about Costco pizza: It can be a little floppy so he puts the pizza on a pizza steel in a 500-degree oven for just a couple of minutes. That extra blast of heat crisps up the bottom and crust and gets the cheese hot again.
Just doing that looks like it makes a huge difference. But he doesn’t stop there. He turns the standard Costco pepperoni pizza into a hot honey, basil and ricotta pizza by adding:
- Ricotta
- Fresh basil
- Freshly grated Parmesan
- Hot honey
He puts the ricotta into a bag and pipes dollops around the pizza, then adds the basil, Parmesan and a generous drizzle of hot honey.
The finished pizza looks dramatically better than what came out of the Costco box.
Even @itsdoughguy admits that it still has what he calls the “Costco dough taste,” but says the extra bake and toppings take it to a “whole different level.” I believe it.
And I would make one additional modification: jalapeños. One commenter simply wrote, “It’s missing jalapeños.” I agree!
Hot honey, pepperoni, ricotta, fresh basil, Parmesan and jalapeños? Now you’re speaking my language.
The extra bake might be the real secret
What I found particularly interesting is that several people in the comments said they already do something similar, even without adding all the toppings.
One commenter wrote: “Bro I try to tell everyone this. Take the Costco pizza home and throw it in the oven for just a couple min on the highest temp. How drastically it changes is mind-blowing.”
That makes sense. Costco pizza is enormous and loaded with cheese and toppings, but the crust can be soft, especially after sitting in the box on the ride home. Giving it a couple of minutes on a screaming-hot pizza steel or stone should help crisp up the bottom.
If you don’t have a pizza steel or stone, you could try using a pizza pan or baking sheet, though you may not get quite the same crispy bottom.
And if you’re only reheating a slice or two, an air fryer is another option. Allrecipes, which also featured @itsdoughguy’s hack, suggests reheating slices at 400 degrees until they’re browned to your liking.
Of course, there is one problem
Another commenter joked: “Went from a 9.99 pizza to a 29.99 pizza.” Fair point.
But you don’t have to go crazy buying ingredients. We almost always have Parmesan, hot honey and jalapeños in our house, and basil and ricotta aren’t going to break the bank. Plus, you’ll have plenty left over to use for other meals.
You could obviously customize the pizza with whatever you already have in your refrigerator. Fresh mozzarella, onions, peppers, chili flakes, arugula, prosciutto after baking or whatever else you like.
That might actually be the best part of this trick. Costco gives you a giant $9.99 canvas and you can finish it however you want.
I just bought five Costco pizzas for a birthday party
The timing of seeing this video was perfect because I just ordered five Costco pizzas for my daughter’s seventh birthday party. Unfortunately, picking them up was a bit of a nightmare.
I had called our local Costco at 9:15 a.m. and pre-ordered five pizzas for a 1:30 p.m. pickup. I arrived around 1:25 p.m., but the designated whole-pizza pickup line barely moved for about 25 minutes and there was virtually no communication.
Eventually, after I’d been there so long that I was ready to ask for a refund, an employee named Jordan stepped in and saved the day. He actually went to check on my order and discovered that four of my five pizzas were ready and the fifth would be done in about five minutes.
I was especially frustrated because I was missing part of my daughter’s birthday party, where 17 kids were waiting for lunch.
Thankfully, I eventually made it back with the pizzas which the kids loved and we had two extras left over. I’m now sorry I gave them both away to neighbors.
And that’s really why Costco pizza is so hard to beat for a children’s birthday party. It’s huge, inexpensive, familiar and, most importantly, the kids actually want to eat it.
Five Costco pizzas cost about $50. Try feeding a birthday party with five large pizzas from many popular pizza restaurants in Los Angeles and see what that bill looks like.
Maybe I’ve been judging Costco pizza the wrong way
Is Costco pizza going to replace a great New Haven apizza or a beautiful Neapolitan pie straight out of a wood-fired oven? Come on. Not a chance. But maybe that’s the wrong comparison.
For $9.99, Costco gives you a gigantic pizza covered in cheese and pepperoni that feeds a crowd and that a lot of kids and adults love.
One commenter summed up the appeal pretty well, saying Costco pizza isn’t necessarily “good” pizza, but the sheer amount of cheese and pepperoni makes it good and reminds them of 1990s Pizza Hut.
Another commenter had an idea I hadn’t considered: They portion the pizza, freeze it and reheat it later for a late-night snack. That’s pretty smart for a pizza this large.
As for @itsdoughguy’s version, I’m definitely trying it the next time I brave the Costco pizza pickup line. I’ll ask them not to cut it, throw it on a hot pizza steel for a couple of minutes and add ricotta, basil, Parmesan, hot honey and, yes, jalapeños.
Who knows? This $9.99 pizza might finally turn this pizza snob into a Costco pizza fan.
One more pizza tip: What we do with the leftovers
Pizza is already a Friday night tradition in our house. Every week, we have pizza and movie night and I usually make two pizzas: a plain cheese pizza for the kids and another topped with Costco’s chicken sausage with Parmesan and cracked black pepper, plus onions and jalapeños, for me and my wife.
Since we almost always have leftovers, one of my favorite gifts my wife has given me is the Perfect Pizza Pack, a reusable, collapsible pizza storage container that was featured on Shark Tank. It’s so much easier than wrapping leftover slices in aluminum foil, and it collapses when it’s empty so it doesn’t take up much room in the refrigerator or cabinet.
Each slice also sits on its own removable, microwavable tray, so you can grab one without having to pry apart a stack of cold pizza. I don’t microwave mine, though. I put leftover pizza in the air fryer for about five minutes. It crisps up the crust and, in my opinion, tastes much better than microwaved pizza.
That trick should work especially well with leftover Costco pizza. In fact, between @itsdoughguy’s 500-degree oven trick when it’s fresh and the air fryer for leftovers, I may have finally figured out how to make peace with Costco pizza.
Costco used to have a combo pizza and it was great. They eliminated it during COVID (don’t know why as it had nothing to do with COVID). I don’t buy Costco pizza anymore because pepperoni or just cheese does not do it for me, and it is too much trouble to buy other ingredients and add them.