Are you looking for a frozen pizza that isn’t considered junk food? Do you want real pizza made with real dough and not a cauliflower crust pizza?
I don’t blame you at all. After reading this article hopefully you won’t feel the need to limit yourself to Lean Cuisine and Weight Watchers pizza.
I have some pretty exciting news. I’ve been working on taking my own pizza and freezing it so that people anywhere in the country can order it.
And I can say with certainty that the results are better than I expected.
I’ve recruited lots of family, friends and regular customers from Mortadella Head to help me on this adventure. I’ve asked them to receive our boxes of frozen pizza in the mail and give me honest feedback.
Taste test after taste test, the results have been the same. Even after being frozen our pizza is probably better than what is served in your local pizzeria and most pizza restaurants.
On top of being delicious, it’s a great option if you’re trying to make a more healthy choice when it comes to pizza.
Let me explain why my frozen pizza should be in your freezer when you want to make the right choices about eating.
What Type of Pizza Are We Freezing
It all started when some of our regular customers who order our frozen lasagna, meatballs and manicotti started requesting our pizza to be shipped.
It’s something I always thought about, but I wasn’t sure. The Roman pizza we serve in the restaurant gets rave reviews and I didn’t want to jeopardize our reputation by putting out a product that wasn’t awesome.
But after receiving countless requests from our customers across the country who aren’t local to the Boston area, I felt obligated. These people wanted to try our pizza and I had to let them.
So I started doing tests with our Roman pizza.
Now, usually you find thin crust pizza in the freezer aisle at the supermarket. Our pizza is different.
Our frozen pizza is known in Rome as “pizza al taglio” or “pizza by the slice”.
If you walk around the streets of Rome you’ll see beautiful displays of this type of pizza in the windows. It’s sold by the slice, usually cut with a pair of scissors and priced according to the weight of the slice.
The amazing thing you’ll notice about this pizza is that despite it being on the thicker side, it is light, airy and maintains a really crispy crust….even when it’s loaded up with cheese, mortadella and all of the colorful toppings of fresh vegetables.
Not only is it delicious, it’s actually not bad for you.
Why Our Frozen Pizza Is A Healthier Choice
Have you ever heard someone who recently came back from a trip to Italy say…”I ate so much pizza and pasta on my vacation and I didn’t gain any weight. I didn’t even feel bloated”.
That’s actually true. I’ve experienced the same thing.
When you’re in Italy, you’ll also notice that the native Italians are out every night eating plates of pasta and entire pizzas and they’re all skinny!
It’s because the Italians make their food with different ingredients and methods than we do here in the United States.
The Dough
The dough for our frozen Roman pizza is made with the same recipe as the dough we make in the pizza shop.
It takes 72 hours to make our pizza dough. That’s a long time…but it’s worth it.
The regular pizza crusts that most pizza shops and frozen pizza manufacturers use are made using ingredients for speed. They want to mix the dough, cook it right away and get it out the door. It’s made in a way that’s similar to your basic white bread.
The industrial baking processes don’t allow the dough to ferment properly. When the dough doesn’t have time to ferment properly, the gluten proteins don’t have time to get broken down. This is when you feel bloated.
I don’t want to go out on a limb and say that my pizza will help with weight loss, but you won’t feel like you have a brick in your stomach after eating it. In fact, last night someone told me that they can always eat an extra slice of my pizza because it’s lighter.
The other thing I want you to know is that our pizza dough is made with real simple ingredients. It’s made with flour, water, salt, yeast and olive oil.
We use a high protein wheat flour. It’s a white flour that’s perfect for our pizza. The high amount of protein in the flour is what helps get the beautiful crunchy crust.
We also use high quality olive oil and sea salt. We make the dough with the same ingredients you’d find in an Italian grandmother’s kitchen.
I looked at the ingredient list on a frozen pizza box in the supermarket recently and it listed things like corn starch, modified cornstarch and xanthan gum. You won’t find this stuff in my pizza.
The Sauce
The sauce we use on our frozen pizza is the same sauce we use in the restaurant. It’s a simple tomato sauce that we simmer on the stove for a long time. It’s a real sauce made with real tomatoes.
A lot of industrial frozen pizza manufacturers cover their pizza in a cheap mixture of tomato paste, sugar and water. That’s not my style.
I get a lot of compliments on my pizza sauce. It’s such a simple sauce, but it’s so good. Simmering the tomatoes low and slow brings out the natural sweetness.
The Cheese on My Frozen Pizza
At the restaurant we sell a ton of cheese pizza slices. That’s because we use the best cheese.
All of our pizzas have at least two types of cheese. We use a whole milk mozzarella cheese and a grated Pecorino Romano cheese.
We don’t use cheap versions of mozzarella and artificial parmesan cheese like lots of the big frozen pizza factories.
How Do We Freeze Our Pizza?
The process is a really simple 3 step process. It’s the way we were taught when we learned from the famous Gabriele Bonci in Rome.
We start off by baking our dough in a blue steel pan to make a “pizza bianca” or “white pizza”.
Then we top it with our homemade tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and grated Romano. It goes back into the oven quickly so the cheese melts just slightly.
Then we allow the pizza to cool off so we can shrink wrap it and freeze it to lock in all of the flavor and freshness.
How Do Ship The Frozen Pizza
After so many tests we really nailed it. We’ve shipped our pizza all over the country and the results have been great.
We securely pack the frozen pizza in a temperature controlled, insulated box with ice packs. By the time they arrive on your doorstep you can either store them in your freezer or cook them right away.
Does The Frozen Pizza Come With Cooking Instructions?
Absolutely! Every frozen pizza that leaves our kitchen comes with specific cooking instructions. It’s so easy.
You don’t need any pizza stones or fancy toaster ovens to prepare our frozen pizza. All you need is a standard home oven and you’ll be able to sit down and enjoy authentic pizza just like they make in the mom and pop pizza shops in Rome.
What Makes Our Pizza Different
A lot of frozen pizza brands out there don’t use the best ingredients. They do their best to make up for that by loading their sauce with cheap herbs and spices…lots of oregano, garlic powder and onion powder.
Our pizza is different. We use high quality ingredients and let them shine. When you use good ingredients you don’t need to cover them up!
Can You Add Toppings To Our Frozen Pizza?
Yes. Our frozen pizza is built to add lots of toppings. It might be light and airy, but it’s sturdy enough to pile on the good stuff.
If you like vegetable toppings on your pizza try adding red peppers, yellow peppers and thin sliced red onion.
If you want to make it meatier, you can add pepperoni and sausage.
Sometimes it’s nice to have a touch of fresh basil when it comes out of the oven.
If you’re looking for a high quality artisanal frozen pizza that’s made with real ingredients, check out Mortadella Head!
