I Just Learned a Rule-Breaking Tip for Making Frozen Pizza Taste 10x Better, According to an Italian Pizza Maker
Whenever I go to Trader Joe’s, I always grab an extra frozen pizza or two for easy weeknight dinners. The grocery sells one of my favorites. In a supremely cheesy coincidence, this saucy episode of the Inside Trader Joe’s podcast, titled “Pie-ning for Pizza at Trader Joe’s,” is all about … frozen pizza. I ran to grab my headphones to get all the doughy deets from hosts Tara Miller and Matt Sloan, and their very special guest.
The duo spoke with Christian, an Italian pizza maker who’s been developing and shipping pies from Bologna, Italy, to Trader Joe’s since 1994 (!). He spilled several delicious secrets during the episode: The hand-stretched dough rests for 24 hours before it’s baked in a wood-fired oven. (He only uses wood “from the mountains between Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany.”)
But the single best takeaway? A trick we can all use at home next time we’re heating these (or any) frozen pizzas. It’ll taste like it came just from straight out of an Italian wood-fired oven.
Why You Should Thaw Your Pizza Before Heating It in the Oven
That’s right. The key to making frozen pizzas taste like they just came out of a wood-fired oven is to let them thaw a bit before baking, according to Christian. “Take it out of the freezer, then turn on the oven and wait.”
While the group didn’t get into all the details, The Kitchn team did. In fact, we explored this tip a few years ago: As it turns out, slight thawing allows the oven to heat the pizza evenly and crisp it without burning. (Our taster found extra-high heat, a pizza stone or cast-iron skillet, and a shorter-than you’d expect cook time, also ups the freshness factor.
An overcooked frozen pizza is more common than you think, according to Matt. That’s why Christian’s advocated to even include thawing instructions directly on the box. Give it just a few minutes on the counter — really how long it takes to preheat the oven — before cooking it to preserve all of that time and energy to make a great pizza.
What’s your favorite frozen pizza to buy at the grocery store? Tell us about it in the comments below!
This post originally appeared on The Kitchn. See it there: I Just Learned a Rule-Breaking Tip for Making Frozen Pizza Taste 10x Better, According to an Italian Pizza Maker