As promised on the box |
I'm not a big fan of frozen pizza. There are too many genuinely good pizzerias in my area and too many fairly decent "take and bake" refrigerated pies in the supermarket for frozen pizzas to compete. Let's face it - when the majority of the frozen pizzas out there are on the horrid level of Mama Celeste or the equally nasty faux-gourmet crap of California Pizza Kitchen, you can see why I hardly ever look to the freezer case for a pizza fix.
And then yesterday I'm walking by the freezer cases at ALDI, and I saw this Mama Cozzi's Mega Meat Ultimate Five Meat Pizza box gazing up at me. Props to the food stylist and photographer who worked on that label: that photo was irresistable. Seriously. It practically made my mouth water just looking at it. And since we've had other Mama Cozzi's pizzas (the aforementioned take-and-bakes) without being disappointed, Maryanne and I decided to give it a try.
As delivered from the oven. |
For the most part, this pizza totally delivered on the photo's promise. There was capicola, pepperoni, sausage, "beef pizza topping (beef-and-TVP blend)," and bacon along with a decent amount of mozzarella and parmesan cheese. The oven-rising crust was crispy on the bottom and pleasantly doughy below the sauce; not the type of pizza a New Haven pizza diehard would go for, but roughly comparable to a Western Massachusetts pizza crust (i.e. kind of halfway between a New Haven and a Sicilian style crust.)
Way better than the average frozen pizza, and under four bucks. Quite a deal.
I hate to admit being attracted to it, since I am a pizza connoisseur. Like you, we have lots of local pizza establishments that are excellent and frozen pizza is a desparate measure. But...this looks good and would fit in a pinch (like late at night when you need a fix).
ReplyDeleteOh, man....
ReplyDeleteThat looks friggin' incredible.