Sophie Putka/Chowhound
Some consumers of pizza may need a reminder (I certainly did): Margherita pizza is different than what we Americans know as “cheese” or “plain” pizza. Okay, technically, it is a cheese pizza. But more specifically, the margherita is a Neapolitan pizza with fresh slices of mozzarella, crushed San Marzano tomatoes, and fresh basil over a puffy crust that is soft in the middle. And you could make the case that a frozen pizza goes against the spirit of, well, basically every principle of Italian cooking. But you could also argue that the same thriftiness that gave rise to the pizza in the first place — no pun intended — also creates a need for a food that can be popped in the oven for a few minutes and results in a yummy, affordable dinner.
And let me tell you, frozen pizzas have come a long way from the crumbly, cheese-flecked crackers of yesteryear. The frozen margherita pizzas I tried for this ranking essentially fell into two camps that showcased just how far we’ve come: some had the cracker-y crust and maximalist toppings of the comfort-food we’ve always been able to find on store shelves, and others had crusts that were downright bread-like, with sparse, simple toppings that came a lot closer to a pie you could sit down for at a sidewalk pizzeria. Both certainly have their place in the everyday freezer, but for this ranking, I judged both on flavor. I also factored in how close they came to the platonic ideal of a Neapolitan margherita: charred, chewy crust with pure tomato-ey tomato sauce, gooey pools of fresh mozzarella, and a scattering of fresh basil.
9. 365 by Whole Foods Market Thin Crust Pizza Margherita
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Don’t let the health halo around Whole Foods products fool you — sometimes, organic doesn’t taste that much better. Or at least, that was the case with Whole Foods’ 365 Thin Crust Margherita Pizza. Though very reasonably priced, almost none of the components of this pizza did the food justice. The pizza itself didn’t look particularly appealing: the sauce covered most of the surface, and the crust didn’t turn golden-brown despite being fully baked. The crust was neither very thin nor did it puff up in a ring of bread around the toppings. It was dense, bready, and tasted as if it had come out of a box (which it did, to be fair), but many of the other pizzas could’ve fooled me. The sauce was somewhat sweet and inexplicably garlic-y.
Contrary to some long-held tropes about Italian food, people cook with garlic very sparingly in Italy, and generally to flavor oil. Garlic would definitely not appear on a traditional margherita pizza. There were dry speckles of Parmesan underneath the discs of mozzarella, and the cheese did taste good. Pieces of basil leaves were visible, and thankfully, they came as close to fresh basil as a frozen version could. A friend who also tried the pizza liked it more than I did. But to me, the overall impression was heavy and dense, earning it the last spot in this ranking.
8. California Pizza Kitchen Margherita Thin Crust with Tomato-Basil Sauce
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California is about as far away from Italy as you can get, and with California Pizza Kitchen’s margherita-inspired frozen pizza (that’s right, I said it), this is painfully apparent. Right off the bat, this pizza looked questionable. Why were there what looked like diced fresh tomatoes (that had been frozen and then reheated) on top? Why were there so many green dried herbs underneath?
I know that CPK tries to put the Golden State’s fresh, local-ingredient-oriented spin on its pizzas, but tomatoes are pretty unpleasant when they’ve been frozen, transported thousands of miles, and thawed. They added a watery heaviness that distracted from the other toppings. The crust had a cracker-dry crunch, and I could barely detect any tomato sauce. In fact, the crust’s flavor wasn’t bad, and there was a generous amount of cheese. I didn’t mind the dense herbs either — they reminded me of pesto. It’s hard to go wrong with any pizza, let’s be real, and CPK’s tasted okay, but it lost points for a less satisfying flavor and being one of the furthest from actual margherita pizza.
7. DiGiorno Frozen Thin & Crispy Stuffed Crust Margherita Pizza
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DiGiorno has earned a reputation as a quintessential freezer-aisle pizza, so, of course, I had to try its take on this Neapolitan classic. I’m not sure exactly why, but I felt slightly tricked by this one. The look was similar to CPK’s: a thin-crust flecked with cubed tomatoes. I knew this would be no authentic Italian pizza experience, but maybe the flavor would make up for it. The crust was crunchy, and the toppings felt incredibly generous when I bit into a slice.
This pizza delivered nicely contrasting textures: Four types of cheese! A stuffed crust! Tomatoes, both diced and sauced! But DiGiorno’s answer to the margherita ended up tasting kind of like nothing. The cheese was melty, and the box carried the reassuring (or is it worrying?) promise: “made with real cheese.” The stuffed crust was a nontraditional, if fun, touch. But it was a bit too sweet and definitely lacked the bready, chewy texture that the newer pizzas I tried had mastered. Compared to the other pizzas, DiGiorno’s tasted highly engineered and a little artificial. This feels like a pizza that has not evolved much over the decades. It’s old school, but the nostalgia wasn’t enough to sell me on a pizza that lacked flavor and relied on lower-quality ingredients.
6. Good & Gather Signature Wood-Fired Margherita Frozen Pizza
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From the get-go, I had grave doubts about this pizza, despite its “product of Italy” label. The toppings were unevenly distributed — almost comically — with gobs of flabby-looking cheese on some slices and nearly none on others, and a scattering of what looked like big, canned tomato chunks, concentrated in just a few spots. It certainly surpassed Whole Foods’ dry, somewhat joyless offering, and the strangely flavorless DiGiorno and CPK: the cheese tasted clean, the basil was fresh, and the sauce was fairly light without being too sweet (though there was a bit too much of it).
The crust, however, was too doughy, giving the whole pizza a heavy, dense feeling, and there was not much chew or crunch. The pieces described as “grilled tomato” on top tasted better than they looked, but added little to the flavor and a lot to the overall weighed-down feeling. A note: some of this could have been user error — though I baked each pizza according to each box’s instructions, this one could have used a minute or two longer.
5. Amy’s Margherita Pizza
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From here on in, the pizzas took a turn, with seemingly higher-quality ingredients and better flavor. Amy’s delivers on what tastes like fresh ingredients, and its pizza is certified organic. The fresh mozzarella tasted great, and the sauce was a little acidic without being noticeable. The basil looked and tasted fresh. The ingredients were in proportion, though I could have done with a little more cheese. To my delight, Amy’s also had a little bit of that grease that makes take-out pizza so delicious and indulgent. The crust tasted great — no preservative flavor here— but the look and feel brought it down a bit. Amy’s crust was a shockingly bright orange, with a not-quite-there texture. It was crunchy, with a hint of chew, but barely any rise. Other pizzas I tried had more depth of flavor and better crusts, but Amy’s was still a solid pick.
4. Bettergoods Italian Wood-Fired Margherita Pizza
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Walmart’s premium store brand, bettergoods, continued to outshine pricier options with its focus on trendier foods and higher-quality ingredients than its Great Value brand and other big-box competitors. Like Target’s store brand, bettergoods’ margherita pizza carried a “product of Italy” label and delivered surprisingly impressive flavors and textures for a frozen pizza. The overall look was, finally, Neapolitan, with a puffy, thick crust, bright sauce, big slices of mozzarella, and whole basil leaves. The flavor was richer and a bit more salty than some of its competitors, and though the cheese and other ingredients were very mild, the crust’s texture was truly impressive. It was fluffy (something I’ve never encountered in a disc of dough from the frozen aisle) and the chewy exterior was charred and blistered in spots, which the box indicates is from the “lava stone wood-fired oven” it was baked in. High-heat ovens make a huge difference when it comes to pizza quality, and real extra virgin olive oil must have helped here, too. This margherita was a strong contender in the bunch, and only fell to fourth because of the surprising strength of its peers when it came to flavor.
3. Newman’s Own Margherita Stone Fired Crust Frozen Pizza
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Newman’s Own has a lot to offer besides salad dressings, and the margherita pizza was no exception. I was surprised at how much flavor this pizza packed in with so few ingredients, and how well they came together. Again, this really looked like a traditional Neapolitan pizza, with pools of fiore di latte (or, cow-milk mozzarella) and a bright, simple tomato sauce. Again, the crust was nicely charred, and, as noted by the box, this pizza was stone-fired. Despite being cooked for the specified 11 minutes, the crust still looked pale and lacked the puff of some of its peers. That being said, it wasn’t undercooked, but still nicely chewy, and tasted great.
Notably, Newman’s Own margherita delivered another classic characteristic of Neapolitan pizza — at least the kind that gets a certified stamp of approval. It had a soft, almost floppy middle. Although this might infuriate some lovers of a firm New York-style crust (I count myself among these), more authentic Neapolitan pizzas are not to be lifted into the mouth by hand, but shockingly, meant to be eaten with — gasp! — a knife and fork (Google it). This was a margherita pizza that stuck to the basics and really delivered.
2. Katie’s Burrata Margherita Frozen Pizza
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A newcomer to Target stores since just this September, this buzzy frozen pizza line from St. Louis restaurateur Katie Lee stood apart from the rest of the pack. In a very literal sense, this pizza came packaged in just a clear sleeve, with the toppings front and center. And the quality of the ingredients here really stole the show. The cheese tasted the best of every pizza of the bunch — probably because it’s burrata, the king of mozzarella. It held its own without being too salty, just creamy, milky meltiness. A subdued sauce and fresh basil also worked well here. The crust, like its peers, had been baked in a wood-fired oven at high heat. Finished in a home oven, the naturally leavened crust had none of the rise of bettergoods or Trader Joe’s, but tasted like a restaurant-quality pie.
This artisanal-style pizza was also the most expensive of the bunch, and it was this, plus the flat crust, that kept it from the top spot. But there is a case to be made for splurging here. The steep price certainly didn’t appear to have hindered shoppers at my local Target who had picked the freezer shelves clean of every Katie’s flavor, prompting me to beg a patient Target employee to grab a margherita for me from their back stock area. Frozen or not, this is real-deal, from-scratch Neapolitan-style pizza in top form.
1. Trader Joe’s Margherita Pizza
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Trader Joe’s managed to combine the best features of many yummy frozen pizzas, all in a highly affordable package. At first glance, Trader Joe’s wasn’t necessarily as attractive as Katie’s or bettergoods, but it still had every component of a traditional margherita. True to form, the tips of the slices drooped inwards, and the bottom of the crust was still cooked through. What ultimately pushed Trader Joe’s margherita toward the finish line, though, was some of the best crust I tried on a frozen pizza: crackly and charred, it rose more than any other pizza did and delivered a generous crunch, with plenty of air and chew. Again, we can thank wood-burning stone ovens for a restaurant-quality char.
Another “product of Italy,” this pizza was also bursting with flavor, despite one of the shortest ingredient lists. And according to the people at Trader Joe’s, this pizza recently received a glow-up, with a change in its crust technique and a sauce upgrade. Its margherita used to have a standard tomato sauce, but is now a “passata” — essentially just tomato puree, which is as close to true Neapolitan as you can get. It really works. It was light and acidic but not too sweet or heavy, and the part-skim mozz complemented it well. Everything tasted good together, and there was a depth of flavor here I didn’t get from bettergoods, for example. Katie’s and Newman’s Own more than held up on flavor, but their crusts just didn’t reach Trader Joe’s heights. Our top picks were all great, but TJ’s quality for the price edged out the others.
Methodology
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Pizza is pretty much always good. But not all pizzas are created equal, and for this ranking, I had to get nitpicky. I selected a variety of frozen pizzas that were widely available at national chains, highly rated, and specifically had the name “margherita.” Some popular pizza brands, like Red Baron, make a margherita pizza that wasn’t available at local stores. I baked each pizza according to the package instructions (if the pizza specified 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 to 12 minutes, I left it in for 11 minutes, for example). I tried each pizza several times, in various orders, and, in some cases, took a blind taste of slices to break ties.
I judged primarily on flavor: How did each ingredient taste? Did all the ingredients work together? But because opinions on pizza vary widely (and sometimes aggressively), I also factored in texture, especially of the crust, and a trickier concept: “authenticity.” Because the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN) sets actual international regulations to certify “true” Neapolitan pizzas, I could approximate, to some extent, which pizzas most resembled this classic style. I also considered the pizza’s visual appeal and value. I encountered a wide range of prices for similarly sized pizzas: some were pricey, though delicious, while others delivered a great product for less.
Dining and Cooking