credit: merc
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This isn’t a ranking of the best frozen cheese pizzas. We ranked those already. We’re talking about frozen margherita pizza here. We’re talking thin crust, fresh slabs of mozzarella, simple tomato sauce, and basil. We’re talking about the Neapolitan classic that represents the Italian flag—just, you know, frozen.
What we looked for in the best frozen margherita pizza:
Thin crust. Margherita pizza should have a thin crust—not, like, crackery thin like a Domino’s thin crust, but a floppy, fresh thin crust.
Slabs of fresh mozzarella. We wanted to see big slabs or dollops of fresh mozzarella (or at least something that resembled fresh mozzarella). And we wanted it to taste like fresh mozzarella, too: creamy, grassy, cheesy.
Real basil. Bonus points for whole basil leaves.
Good tomato sauce. No sweet, gloopy tomato sauce. The best margherita pizza features a sauce made with minimal ingredients. This sauce should celebrate the tomato—not oregano.
I tried 14 different frozen margherita pizzas for this taste test. One brand really stood out above the rest and seriously knocked my socks off. But there are others worth mentioning as well—especialy since our number one picks isn’t super widely available.
Here’s the best margherita pizza you can find in the freezer aisle.
Best Frozen Margherita Pizza, Ranked
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Best Cauliflower Crust
Urban Pie Thin Crust Made with Cauliflower
Do not buy this for your Italian grandmother and tell her it’s a margherita pizza. She’ll cut you right out of the will. But you should buy this if you’re partial to cauliflower crust pizzas. And let’s talk about that crust. It is notably not gluten free, it just includes some sneaky cauliflower. And you can taste it a bit, but not too much. It gets crisp in the oven and does a good job of supporting the stars of the show: halved cherry tomatoes. Amazingly, those little tomatoes still taste fresh and bright and zippy, and they do a good job of covering up any lingering cauliflower flavor. The cheese is an afterthought. This is a frozen margherita pizza for people missing fresh tomatoes in the middle of winter.
Credit: Merc / Kroger
Best Lots of Cheese
Amy’s Margherita Pizza
I won’t beat around the bush, this frozen margherita pizza looks bad. I expected little to nothing from it. But if you close your eyes and take a bite, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised, as I was. The little dollops of mozzarella are surprisingly good—they are super creamy and have a really good, rich flavor. The sauce is pleasantly savory. And while the crust isn’t as thin as I’d like, it’s buttery and objectively good. This is not a traditional margherita pizza, but the mozzarella is good enough to earn it a spot on this list.
Credit: Merc / Walmart
Best Cheap
Trader Joe’s Margherita Pizza
Trader Joe’s gets the margherita pizza crust correct. It’s floppy and thin with just enough crispness. And there are big dollops of mozz on the pizza along with a couple of big basil leaves. So, why isn’t it higher on this list? The sauce is a bit too thick and the cheese tastes more like provolone than mozzarella. Still, it looks great, it tastes good, and, because it’s a Trader Joe’s frozen pizza, it’s cheap.
Credit: Merc / Trader Joe’s
Best Widely Available
Newman’s Own Stone Fired Crust
This is the best margherita pizza to buy if you’re not interested in shopping at Whole Foods. You can find it in a wide variety of grocery stores. And you should seek it out. It’s good! The sauce is bright and tangy and there’s just enough of it. The mozzarella cheese is plentiful and fresh. The crust gets chewy and crispy in the oven. And, yes, there’s actual basil in the mix. Mr. Newman never lets us down.
Credit: Merc
Best of the Best
Table 87
Table 87 is a mini chain of pizzerias in Brooklyn, NY, known for coal-fired pizzas. But you can also find heat-and-eat shrink-wrapped versions of their pies and slices at Whole Foods. The margherita pizza has the thinnest crust imaginable. It’s topped with thin splotches of mozzarella and just a thin swipe of tomato sauce. It doesn’t look like much, but it tastes absolutely incredible. The outer crust gets nicely crisp while the inner crust remains floppy and tastes pleasantly yeasty. The mozzarella is extremely creamy, thin as it is. And the tomato sauce is perfect—like freshly grated ripe tomatoes. Our pizza could have used more obvious basil, but I’ll forgive it because this is the best margherita pizza I’ve had outside of a restaurant.
Credit: Merc / Whole Foods
Other frozen margherita pizzas we tried:
Porta Hand Stretched, Oggi Gluten Free, 365, Signature Select, Aplenty, Italpizza La Bomba, Blackbird, California Pizza Kitchen, Bettergoods
Dining and Cooking