Frozen Pizza

[zpzjessica]

I just discovered my new favorite frozen pizza, perfect for nights when I get home late from work or just don't have a lot of time to make or order something.

It's Lean Cuisine Chicken and Roasted Garlic pizza. It comes in a square shape, and has very thin crust. It's DELICIOUS and it's impossible to tell that it's supposed to be 'healthy'.

[DCP]

Another vote for Trader Joe's frozen pizzas. They have one that is essentially a clone of California Pizza Kitchen's BBQ Chicken pizza (BBQ sauce, gouda, chicken, red onion, etc.) that's fantastic - and less than half the price of CPK's.

[Alex]

Unfortunately, I haven't seen Freschetta in any of the stores by us. Wolfgang Puck's gets a resounding "eh" from me. I'm a big fan, though, of Amy's Pizza, especially the 3 cheese with cornmeal crust. Like other posters, sometimes I'll add my own toppings, or sometimes just a sprinkling of oregano and hot pepper flakes.

[phaelon56]

Update. I had a weekend guest several weeks ago who used my home when I was out of town. She had some of her grandchildren over to visit and bought frozen pizza's to serve them - one of which was left in my freezer uncooked. It was labeled "Mama Cicco's Self-Rising Pepperoni". Looked to be similar to Di Giorno and the like but I think maybe it's an Aldi's generic type brand.

I baked it for the suggested time duration and until the cheese and crust looked to be similar to the way I've cooked Di Giorno or Freschetta. But it was truly disgusting. The cheese and sauce were bland and almost flavorless and the dough had a weird sort of wet spongy characteristic even though it seemed properly cooked on the bottom and the edges. Even the pepperoni was below average. Avoid this one.

[chappie]

A true love of pizza enables one to love it on many different levels and thus appreciate a perfect margherita from Two Amys or a deliciously bubbled pie from the 90-year-old oven at Lombardi's, yet also enjoy a 3 a.m. cheap bar pizza (probably Sysco?) baked to crispness at Carpenter St. Saloon in St. Michaels, Md. Preceded by the proper quantities of corn soda, the latter fulfills just as important a niche.

Nearly any frozen pizza, in my opinion, beats Domino's, a company that has mastered the art of melding sauce, crust and cheese into a product that tastes like absolutely nothing. But there are limits. An old college roommate used to stock up on the cheapest of the cheap tiny frozen discs (I think they were Fox's brand?), meagerly covered in pseudo-cheez and tiny dots of sausagish, rubbery substance. They were maybe 50 cents each on sale, and he'd cover them liberally with French's mustard.

When I was in high school, our lacrosse team held a fundraiser involving this Music Man of a pizza scheister, in which we'd sell pizzas to be delivered at a later date. My mom still played in a tennis league, so she got all the bored ladies to buy three or four, most of them having no interest in actually receiving said product.

Pizza Hawk gathered all the spring athletes in the school's cafeteria to make the pizzas, splitting us into different tasks like saucing, cheesing and shrink-wrapping. They could either be delivered fresh, or frozen. I don't know what he got off all this free labor but I imagine he left town quickly.

Anyway, we had this freezer in the basement already loaded with ice cream novelties I'd inherited upon the end-of-summer closing of the pool at which I lifeguarded. None of our buyers seemed to want their pizzas, so in went 40 or more stacked pizzas, and for the next couple of months we had some great after-school (and late-night after-party) grubbage.

Until the power went out down there and I lost my entire trove. I nearly wept.

[gfweb]

Home Run Inn pizza seems to me to be the best of the frozen lot. It isn't take-out pizza, but the sauce and cheese are not sucky and it crisps up nicely. Unfortunately its only available in the midwest and a few Harris Teeter stores in the South.

[ellevan]

I have found that that Target's Archer Farms brand frozen pizza is very good for being frozen (just make sure you look at the box to make sure it is imported from Italy). Spinach and goat cheese is the best!

[Tim Dolan]

Thought I'd chime in since I have a pepperoni Tombstone in the oven right this moment. I've always been a fan of Tombstone and don't get the hype of Freschetta or DiGorno. They seem like dough bombs to me. Tombstone has a nice, tangy sauce and they don't skimp on the toppings. I also enjoy Stoeffer's French bread pizzas and have been know to indulge in a doctored up Ellio's from time to time. Childhood habits are hard to break!

[AaronM]

Freschetta Brick Oven Pepperoni is exceptional for a frozen product.

Drizzle a little good olive oil on it and you're done.

[Caruso]

I would be shocked to discover a widely available frozen pizza with both better quality (and fewer!) ingredients and better taste than Amy's regular cheese pizza. Hell, take the ingredients out of the equation, I'm not sure I've had a better tasting frozen pizza, period.

[Paul Bacino]

I dig the tombstone pizzas..

I actually think making frozen pizza is more a technique, to the crust work with the topping. I'm currently A tombstone dude!! I heat the oven to 450

( convection ).. put the pie in ( no rack ).. drop the temp to 400.. then its about 18-19 mins.

P

[jsmeeker]

I always had a soft spot for Tontino's Party Pizzas. They were fairly cheap, small, and had a crisp, cracker like crust. I haven't had one in years, though.

[AaronM]

Totally! Sometimes you just wanna shove garbage down your throat - quality be damned!

[JAZ]

I would be shocked to discover a widely available frozen pizza with both better quality (and fewer!) ingredients and better taste than Amy's regular cheese pizza. Hell, take the ingredients out of the equation, I'm not sure I've had a better tasting frozen pizza, period.

I took a pizza class from Peter Reinhart years ago, when his pizza book American Pie came out. He said then that he was working with the company on their frozen pizzas, so I imagine they're very good.

[Caruso]

That's pretty cool, JAZ. Another good thing about the Amy's pizza is that it has great flavor but likely half the sodium of some of the junkier options, which are usually spiked to the hilt with sodium to compensate for other deficiencies.

That said, I have fond memories of the Totinos party pizzas that used to be on sale for a dollar. Growing up, my mom would always have like ten of them in the freezer and I LOVED them!!

[barbarataylor]

I don't like pizza so much, but this one is the greatest one that I've tried !

Thank you about that great post

[OliverB]

An other one for Trader Joe's imported. Seems kind of stupid to import pizza from Italy, but they are pretty tasty and have some of that "italian pizza" taste that I can't define or replicate as well. I never eat them as is, I always add stuff to them, but they make a great base for a quick dinner.

I usually sprinkle some dried oregano on them, sometimes granulated garlic, always fresh basil (after cooking), halved cherry tomatoes or sundried tomato, salami or prosciutto, maybe even extra mozzarella, things like that. They bake up nice and crunchy. Matter of fact, it's probably what we'll have for dinner tonight since I won't have time to cook.

[heidih]

I don't like pizza so much, but this one is the greatest one that I've tried !

Thank you about that great post

Which one are you referring to?

[philadining]

I always had a soft spot for Tontino's Party Pizzas. They were fairly cheap, small, and had a crisp, cracker like crust. I haven't had one in years, though.

Those Totinos pizzas have become increasingly difficult to find around me, legitimate grocery stores seem to have stopped carrying them. But I do see them occasionally at small convenience stores. I think the last one I bought was at a gas station...

I still love them. There's something about the combination of the weird bubbly, crunchy crust, and the crappy toppings that just works. I have a hard time saying that they're "good" frozen pizzas, but they're just what I want sometimes.

[suzilightning]

Coupon, sale, bought an O! pizza - 4 cheese.  The crust has some cauliflower in it.  The cheese was good.  Not enough sauce and too much crust for me.  I have been spoiled by living here in NJ and love a thin crust only - course I'm not a big bread person anyway.  I cut the top part off, added some more sauce and ate that.  took the bottom part and froze it for John to eat dipping it in sauce.  He doesn't need to know there is some vegetable in it … does he?

[Tri2Cook]

I can't say I've met a frozen pizza I actually enjoyed but the kid talked me into buying the Delissio  limited edition stuffed crust pepperoni pizza that showed up in the local store. I still wouldn't say I actually enjoyed it but it was probably the least objectionable frozen pizza I've tried... keeping in mind there's not a lot of choices where I live. Nothing about the pizza was great, nothing about it rendered it inedible. The cheese stuffed crust made the, usually discarded with frozen pizzas, edge crust edible. Especially after thoroughly soaking it with garlic butter as soon as it came out of the oven. My biggest problem with frozen pizzas (comparing apples to apples, not comparing to fresh made pizza) is they tend to be stingy with the sauce so they end up being on the dry side. But enough parmesan and dried chili flakes can make anything taste better. 

[gfweb]

The Home Run Inn fz pizza isn't as good as a pizza parlor's but at midnight its pretty good. Thin crisp crust. You need to experiment with time and temp to get just right.

[Zimma]

I haven’t eaten any really tasty frozen pizza yet! I think this is a real perversion - frozen pizza. Maybe because my grandmother was Italian)))

[Kim Shook]

 

14 hours ago, Zimma said:

I haven’t eaten any really tasty frozen pizza yet! I think this is a real perversion - frozen pizza. Maybe because my grandmother was Italian)))

I think if you start thinking of frozen pizza as "flatbread" rather than "pizza", you might be happier.  I don't know where you are, but if you have access to Kroger grocery stores, their house brand "Private Selection" is quite good.  So is California Pizza Kitchen pizza.  But you have to think of them as flatbreads.  If you expect them to be pizza, you will be disappointed.  That was how I started to (kinda) like deep dish pizza when my parents lived in Chicago.  It was obviously not pizza, so I decided to think of is as pizza bread - a delicacy that my mother and I would have the day after a spaghetti dinner - leftover garlic bread, meat sauce, and a slice of provolone broiled in the oven.  I was ok with deep dish after that.  Point of view.

[gfweb]

44 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

 

I think if you start thinking of frozen pizza as "flatbread" rather than "pizza", you might be happier.  I don't know where you are, but if you have access to Kroger grocery stores, their house brand "Private Selection" is quite good.  So is California Pizza Kitchen pizza.  But you have to think of them as flatbreads.  If you expect them to be pizza, you will be disappointed.  That was how I started to (kinda) like deep dish pizza when my parents lived in Chicago.  It was obviously not pizza, so I decided to think of is as pizza bread - a delicacy that my mother and I would have the day after a spaghetti dinner - leftover garlic bread, meat sauce, and a slice of provolone broiled in the oven.  I was ok with deep dish after that.  Point of view.

 

Our store bland at Acme, Signature Select, has pretty decent pizza, esp the ultra thin crust.

 

Thinking of it as flatbread is a good move.