i've done that a few times, boboli. made it for an ex once for vday. it was pretty good... i'd rather just buy it though. also pretty easy to just put some sauce/cheese/toppings on a french bread loaf
as far as nationwide chains, round table is up there
Quality pizza from scratch is actually really easy to make at home. At bare minimum, a pizza stone & an oven is all you really need for a really decent pie (or a cast-iron skillet, depending on what style you want to make). Here's a few (pretty easy) recipes I use on a regular basis:
1. NY-style pizza: Uses a food processor, lasts up to 5 days in the fridge. Only takes a minute to make the dough (literally).
2. Pizza Hut-style pan pizza: Another super easy recipe, just a quick mix by hand in a bowl & then let it rise overnight (this is kind of a "next day" pizza dough). This one uses a cast-iron skillet. This is my family's favorite recipe to date.
3. Bar-style pizza: Another cast-iron skillet recipe; this one actually uses a tortilla for an extra-crispy crust. 12 minutes total, no dough prep required!
Supreme recipe here.
Video walkthrough tutorial also available. This is really good if you want a quick dinner or snack. On a tangent, they also have a
killer quesadillas technique.
My toolset has evolved over the years. For indoor cooking, I currently use a
Baking Steel and a
Super Peel. The Baking Steel is the same idea as a baking stone, but more durable (won't crack, ever) &
gives a better crust. The Super Peel is basically a conveyor belt for dough, so that you can unload pizza dough (and other stuff, like bread) onto your baking surface perfectly every time without having to use cornmeal (or other stuff) to make it slide off (it uses a specially-coated cloth so the dough doesn't stick).
However, I do most of my cooking outdoors on a custom-made grill these days (goes up to 1000F, whoohoo!), but if you're looking for an outdoor unit, the
Blackstone Pizza Oven ($285 on sale) is amazing. These tools are kind of pricey, but if you look at it as a ROI on what you pay for pizza now vs. baking it at home, over time they pay for themselves. The best pizza place in town charges $24 for a large (no joke), so a few visits there equals a quality home pizza-making setup. Granted, I make a lot of pizza (a couple times a week at least, usually), so it depends on how much you like it & how often you would be making it.