One in seven Americans eat take-out or delivery food from a restaurant on Super Bowl Sunday, according to the National Restaurant Association. About 60 percent of the purchases will be for pizza.
Sales of store-bought frozen pizza will be about 20 percent higher than usual this week, according to a spokeswoman for DiGiorno and Tombstone.
When it comes to pizza, most Americans have long followed this advice: Do not try this at home.
Of course, there are do-it-yourselfers.
"Making your own pizza elevates the quality of the pizza you get to eat at home,'' said George Formaro, a Des Moines chef who sells pizza at his restaurant, Centro, 1007 Locust St., and take-and-bake pizza at Gateway Market, 2002 Woodland Ave.
Truly adventurous home cooks will make their own doughs from scratch. This step can take up to six hours or longer, but is considered essential by pizza connoisseurs who place heavy emphasis on the taste and texture of the crust, Formaro said.
Resourceful home cooks will know where to get dough that someone else took the time to make.
"If you're fortunate to have an old-style neighborhood pizzeria, you can probably buy some dough from them,'' Formaro said.
For years, Centro and South Union Bakery have been selling dough informally to regular customers who take it home as a substitute for made-at-home fresh dough.
In August, Gateway Market began selling small pillows of refrigerated dough made in South Union Bakery, which moved from Des Moines' south side to the Gateway Market in April.
Food consultant Joyce Lock of Des Moines, author of the table game Foodie Fight, has been living and cooking in the area since the mid-1960s.
"As far as I know, this would be a first,'' she said of an area grocery store selling locally made dough.
Prepared pizza crusts from national companies have long been available. But the product being sold for $2.99 a pound at Gateway is different because it is fresh and has no preservatives, Formaro said.
The dough can be used to make pizza, stromboli and calzone, he said.
While it is easier to call for take-out or delivery or to toss a frozen or take-and-bake pizza into the oven, the pizza made and baked at home is likely to taste much better, Formaro said.
"It is true, the fresher the ingredients, the better the taste,'' he said. "And you can make your crust as thick or thin as you like.''
CJ Bienert, who manages the cheese department at Gateway Market, said most of the pizza he eats is homemade.
Making a pizza allows consumers to customize cheese toppings with fresher and higher-quality cheese, Bienert said.
"You can really go for what I like to call the goo factor,'' he said, adding that one cheese he'd recommend in addition to good mozzarella is a young asiago.
He also recommends a specialty cheese, caciocavallo, which is imported from Italy and is similar to aged provolone.
"The important thing if you take the time to make your own pizza, is you should go for the taste you like," Bienert said. "You can empty out your refrigerator, if you want.''
