The Brand That Makes Costco's Food Court Pizza Dough

Four magic words that will get any teen to haul themselves away from the comfort of the sofa to help mom and dad with the grocery shopping? Costco food court pizza. Laden with over a pound of gooey cheese and an abundance of pepperoni, a single slice of this Costco classic is the perfect recompense for a parental-led expedition of bulk-buying. And while the toppings are seriously scrumptious, they'd be nothing without that puffy, golden crust that's crispy on the edges and chewy in the center. If you've ever wondered which brand makes Costco's pizza dough so you can snap up a box to stash in your freezer at home, we've got you covered. After a little digging, we've tracked down their supplier — Lamonica's Pizza Dough, a Brooklyn, NY-based manufacturer.

According to a video on Lamonica's website, the frozen dough balls are delivered to Costco stores daily. They're then thawed before each ball is flattened into the perfect 18 inch sized crust in a pizza press or pulled out by hand to cover the entire circumference of a pizza screen. Preparing the crust with a pizza press means extra flour doesn't have to be used during the rolling-out process, resulting in a lighter, fluffier pizza. Finally the pies are topped with sauce, cheese and extras before they're baked and sliced into six or 12 equal pieces using a pizza screen. 

Want to get your mitts on Lamonica's dough? A Redditor recently purchased a box of 30 dough balls (each one weighing it at 850 grams) for $24.99 with the plan to split each portion into three to make smaller, manageable sized pizzas at home, from a Costco business center. While these business centers are primarily designed for professional businesses that require bulk-buy items, they're open to all Costco members as long as they have an existing membership card. If you do purchase a box, be sure to make plenty of space in your freezer to store them because once the dough thaws it must be used within 36 hours, according to the guidelines on the box.

There are over a hundred Lamonica's pizza dough distributors in the U.S., covering over 30 states, that sell boxes of frozen dough balls, ranging from 7 to 30 ounce sizes. They are made in four facilities in the U.S., and one in Italy, together manufacturing over 100 million pounds of pizza dough a year.  On a video tour of one of the pizza factories, John Lamonica, founder and CEO of the brand, said his family has been making pizza since the 1960s, taking care to use quality ingredients so each batch of dough remains consistent throughout the year.