When you have a pizza craving, can a frozen one satisfy in a pinch?
Consumer Reports’ staffers taste-tested eight popular cheese pizzas, including ones from DiGiorno, Red Baron, Whole Foods Market, Screamin’ Sicilian, Paul Newman’s and Trader Joe’s to see which ones are worth stocking up on.
“We really wanted to look for frozen pizzas that tasted as close to pizza parlor pizza and focused on the main simple elements: the crust, the cheese, and the tomato sauce,” said Consumer Reports’ Trisha Calvo.
The crust seems to be the trickiest part when it comes to frozen pizza. Tasters said Amy’s Cheese Pizza, 13 ounces for $9.39, nailed it. The crust browns nicely and is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.
Overall, the Red Baron Classic Crust Four Cheese Pizza, 21.06 ounces for $5.49, was a crowd-pleaser, with a distinct taste of crust, sauce, and cheese in each bite.
The best bargain was Costco’s Kirkland Signature Cheese Pizza, for $11.49 per 4-pack; 16.95 ounces per pizza.
“It’s not going to earn any culinary awards, but it really was a decent pizza, and you can’t beat the price,” Calvo said.
One the testers said they’d skip is the DiGiorno Four-Cheese Rising Crust pizza.
Cooking a frozen pizza isn’t rocket science, but they found that how you cook it matters.
- Don’t thaw the pizza before you cook it because the cooking time is based on it being frozen.
- Preheat your oven and let it sit at the recommended temperature for a few minutes before throwing your pizza in.
- Place the pizza directly on the center oven rack. The crust will crisp up better this way.
- When it’s done, give it a few minutes to set before you cut it.
If you’ve got leftovers, an air fryer does a good job of re-crisping the crust.