Frozen pizzas: proof of taste or courage?

2023 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 11:20

Pizza, pasta, mandolin. Let's not joke about these three things, we Italians. Steps to the mandolin. In fact, I don't even know if I've ever seen one live.

But pizza and pasta are serious, sacred things. On those they should make us take oaths, other than the Bible or the Constitution.

The premise was a must, to avoid any lynching. Because today we are here to talk to you about frozen pizzas. And don't make those faces there, we know that from time to time they have also appeared in your freezer.

On the other hand, even your favorite pizzeria may be closed on Thursdays.

For our tasting test, we selected eight of the most popular pizzas on the market in large-scale distribution.

CONTENDENTS

Cameo Pizza Regina

Esselunga Top - Margherita pizza with cherry tomatoes

Italpizza - La Verace Bufala and cherry tomatoes

Sofficini Findus - The pizza margherita

Cameo Restaurant - Tasty daisy

Buitoni - Beautiful Naples

Cameo - Pizza Regina Alta

Fidèl - Pizza margherita

JUDGMENT CRITERIA

Packaging

Ingrediants

Gustatory Analysis

Consistency of the dough

The test was carried out blindly, tasting the pizzas after cooking in a ventilated oven.

# 8 Cameo Restaurant - Tasty Margherita

- Judgment: Tasty and tasty, mind you. But I'm not entirely sure if this is the flavor I'm looking for in a margherita pizza. In fact, I correct myself: I'm sure it isn't.

- Packaging: inviting

- Ingredients: Type 0 soft wheat flour, tomato sauce 27%, mozzarella 23% chopped dried tomatoes 8.8% marinated, rapeseed oil, water, yeast, salt, chopped olives, sugar, extra virgin olive oil, basil, modified starch, oregano, parsley, spices, garlic, powdered champignon mushrooms.

- Taste analysis: undoubtedly, when tasted, it is very tasty. Which in general I never mind, but in this case I feel a certain mess in my mouth. Dried tomatoes, garlic, spices, all hints that give the pizza excessive acidity and salinity.

- Consistency of the dough: an unusual dough, low and crunchy, which always seems undercooked (but don't try to cook it more, if you don't want a burnt pizza). The edge (which from here on I will call as I always do, the "cornice") in this case is practically non-existent.

- Price: 10, 46 € / kg (3, 45 € per pizza)

- In short: I'll have to drink tonight. Much.

VOTE: 4/5

# 7 Fidèl - Pizza Margherita

- Judgment: on paper there is nothing wrong with it, and the price is really competitive. Yet it reminds me a little of some pizzas you eat abroad, and this, when we talk about pizza in Italy, is never a good thing.

- Packaging: not essential. Moreover.

- Ingredients: wheat flour, mozzarella (18%), water, tomato pulp (14%) semi-concentrated tomato, olive oil, dextrose salt, malted wheat flour, brewer's yeast, oregano.

- Taste analysis: upon tasting, I find an excessive acidity of the tomato sauce and a little mozzarella to balance the taste.

- Consistency of the dough: I immediately notice a consistency that I find a little crumbly and a little chewy; however the dough improves considerably in the cornice, which is decidedly more crunchy.

- Price: € 4, 15 / kg (€ 1, 24 per pizza)

- In short: probably the embargo did not allow Fidèl to take the cheese with him

VOTE: 5 -

# 6 Cameo - Pizza Regina Alta

- Judgment: a pizza that already at the start declares itself different from all the other contenders. It is not the right pizza for those like me who love Neapolitan dough. Of all the contenders, it is the one with the ingredients list that convinces me less.

- Packaging: very bright, even if a little retro

- Ingredients: type 0 soft wheat flour, tomato sauce 23%, mozzarella 15%, water, palm fat, yeast, salt, rapeseed oil, rice semolina, sugar, sunflower oil, acidity regulators: phosphates calcium, calcium citrates; modified starch, leavening agent: sodium hydrogen carbonate; oregano, milk proteins, pepper, barley malt extract

- Taste analysis: when tasted it appears to have too little decisive flavor. I feel a certain inaction of the cheese while the sweet taste of the tomato prevails.

- Consistency of the dough: a different, higher dough, which makes it less dry than the contenders, leaving it very soft even when it cools. The cornice is rightly crunchy.

- Price: 5, 57 € / kg (2, 06 € per pizza)

- In short: lots of bread, little cheese

VOTE: 5

# 5 Sofficini Findus - The pizza margherita

- Judgment: the truth? I thought worse. All in all, the result is tasty, thanks to the abundant mozzarella. A product that obviously winks at the little ones, both in the packaging and in the strong flavor.

- Packaging: anyone with children knows that puppets and cartoons work with them.

- Ingredients: wheat flour, mozzarella 25%, water, tomato pulp 9, 6%, tomato puree 9.6%, salt, sunflower seed oil, brewer's yeast, vegetable olive oil, sugar, oregano, basil

- Taste analysis: I immediately notice the abundant seasoning, although the contraindication is that, if not eaten hot, a lot of mozzarella creates a bit of a mappazzone (as Barbieri would say). On the second tasting round, it convinces me much less.

- Consistency of the dough: fairly correct, with a thin (albeit slightly chewy) dough and a crunchy rim.

- Price: 9 € / kg (3, 49 € per pizza)

- In short: pizza is adult stuff

VOTE: 5 ½

# 4 Pizza Regina Cameo

- Judgment: the "queen of pizzas" is not bad, and for me it reaches enough. Balanced in the toppings, although I would have preferred a little more mozzarella.

- Packaging: exactly like its "tall" sister, it is very bright, even if a little retro

- Ingredients: type 0 soft wheat flour, 20% tomato sauce, 20% mozzarella, water, rapeseed oil, salt, 0.5% extra virgin olive oil, yeast, modified starch, basil, oregano.

- Taste analysis: a suitably seasoned pizza, slightly too tasty, with a slightly too salty aftertaste.

- Consistency of the dough: thin, it remains a little too crunchy after cooking indicated on the package (3 minutes).

- Price: € 4.59 / kg (€ 1.37 per pizza)

- In short: I have confirmation that I will have to drink tonight

VOTE: 6

# 3 Buitoni - Beautiful Naples

- Judgment: a pizza that in general I do not mind, well seasoned and with a not too intrusive taste. But I would have preferred a little more character.

- Packaging: the colors recall the Italian character of the product and the image on the wrapping is really inviting.

- Ingredients: wheat flour, mozzarella (23%), water, tomato puree (20%), sunflower oil, salt, 0.7% extra virgin olive oil, basil, brewer's yeast, sugar

- Taste analysis: a pizza that is balanced in the mouth, with the right presence of cheese. However, on the whole, I find it a little not very tasty.

- Consistency of the dough: a very thin dough that gives a soft consistency but penalizes the cornice, which remains not very crunchy.

- Price: € 6.05 / kg (€ 2 per pizza)

- In short: I would not bother Naples

VOTE: 6 ½

# 2 Italpizza - La Verace Bufala and cherry tomatoes

- Judgment: when I discarded it, it seemed to me the best of the contenders. There is no doubt that the appearance creates expectations: satisfied even in blind tasting, it is true, but only in part (in particular, I expected a greater flavor of buffalo mozzarella, since it was the only contender to be able to boast this ingredient).

- Packaging: I like that it points to Italianness and local products, with images of mozzarella and cherry tomatoes. Black probably wants to be an elegant, not quite successful choice.

- Ingredients: pasta 58.4% (soft wheat flour, water, extra virgin olive oil, salt, yeast), buffalo mozzarella from Campania DOP 22%, tomato sauce 11%, cherry tomatoes 6%, sunflower oil

- Taste analysis: a good pizza, with a delicate flavor and a non-invasive seasoning. Pleasant the presence of cherry tomatoes.

- Consistency of the dough: a thin and soft dough, as indeed required by the Neapolitan tradition.

- Price: € 10.42 / kg (€ 1.70 per pizza)

- In short: buffalo is a serious thing, even more than pizza

VOTE: 7 -

# 1 Esselunga Top - Pizza margherita with cherry tomatoes

- Judgment: it is the contender who convinces me the most, for several reasons. The consistency of the dough, the ingredients and the taste, which is the only one where I clearly identify the flavor of the basil.

- Packaging: in my opinion, not really suitable for a top-of-the-range product.

- Ingredients: soft wheat flour, water, sliced Italian mozzarella 15, 8%, Italian mozzarella 10, 5%, Pachino tomato IGP 7, 1%, tomato puree 5.1%, tomato pulp 5, 1%, olive oil sunflower seeds, extra virgin olive oil, salt, yeast, olive oil, sugar, oregano, basil

- Taste analysis: upon tasting, I immediately recognize a well-seasoned pizza (in some places, where whole slices of mozzarella are found, the percentage of cheese is what I would like to find everywhere). You can feel (albeit a little timidly) the taste of basil.

- Consistency of the dough: a soft, Neapolitan-style dough with a rim that remains crunchy.

- Price: 9.19 € / kg (3, 49 € per pizza)

- In short: with basil, the Italian tricolor is complete

VOTE: 7 +

WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED

Pizza, I must admit, I always like. To the cut, to the pan, to the Neapolitan style. Even the worst of home-delivery pizzas is, after all, a good way to feed yourself, as far as I'm concerned. It is obvious, however, that there is pizza and pizza.

And, as often happens when we look at the ready-made products that large retailers offer, we wonder if the feeling of convenience is mostly induced by advertising. Heating a frozen pizza is no faster than dialing the home delivery number, nowadays there are more than decent pizzas delivered quickly.

In some cases, it's not even much cheaper, you should always learn to read the prices per kilo.

That said, frozen pizzas work, some more than others.

Maybe they don't 100% respect the traditional recipe (basil, come on. What does it take to put some?), But for almost all of the ones we examined, we were pleased to note that the ingredient lists are generally to be promoted.