Since November is coming to a close, yesterday I thought that I would make one of my favorite frozen pizzas. And, as it so happens, the pizza is a "Signature" Select pizza. That is a house brand used by supermarkets in the Albertson's chain for various products made especially for them, one of which is a line of pizzas. In my case, I decided to make the Signature Select Margherita pizza. Before I found that particular pizza, I had not seen a frozen Margherita pizza in the stores where I shop. So, I view their Margherita pizza to be their attempt at a classic Margherita pizza with a dough, tomatoes and cheese (which includes mozzarella and grated cheese) and extra virgin olive oil. The pizza also includes basil but it is used in such minuscule amounts as not to be detected in the finished crust. If one has fresh basil on hand, that would be the form of basil to use on the pizza.
There are a few things that I like about the Signature Select Margherita pizza. In addition to its simplicity, the product has a very clean label for a frozen pizza. It is not loaded with all kinds of preservatives, additives and other chemicals. Also, its Nutrition Facts are in line with a healthy product, again as compared with most frozen pizzas. The first two photos show these features. Another thing that I like is that it takes only 15-20 minutes to make the pizza, using my standard electric home oven. So, when the mood strikes me for a quick pizza, I am over and done in no time. Finally, the price of the pizza is attractive, especially when I buy several of them when they are put on special. That means about $2.50-$3.00 each. The pizza I made yesterday cost $2.50.
My usual practice is to doctor up the pizza with more tomatoes and cheese. I use a fresh vine-ripened tomato and dice it. For the added cheese, I use a stick of mozzarella cheese and I also dice that up into small pieces. I then bake the pizza as called for in the instructions on the pizza box. But yesterday, I decided to first defrost the pizza even though the instructions say not to do that. Rather, the pizza is supposed to be baked directly on a middle rack of the oven. But, this time, I wanted to see if the crust would be more tender than when the pizza is baked on the middle rack of the oven.
After defrosting the pizza, I saw that the bottom crust was a pale brown color, which indicated that the crust had been slightly parbaked. But the top of the crust was a normal white color. But I proceeded nonetheless to add the diced tomato and cheese to the top of the pizza. The third photo shows what the pizza looked like before I removed it from its wrapper, and also the tomato and added cheese that I used before dicing them. I also weighed the pizza before and after adding the tomato and additional cheese. The basic pizza itself weighed 11.9 ounces. With the added tomato and cheese, it weighed 15.5 ounces.
Before baking the pizza, I put it on a 12" pizza screen, which is the same size as the pizza. The pizza was baked on the middle oven rack of my oven at 450 degrees F for about 10 minutes. I then moved the pizza to the top oven rack for about an additional 2-3 minutes to further bake the top of the pizza. The fourth photo shows the baked pizza. Its weight coming out of the oven was 13.4 ounces. After cooling the pizza a bit, I cut it into slices. In the past, my practice was to party cut the pizza because the pizza crust was more like a cracker style crust. As it turns out, the latest crust was also more like a cracker style crust.
The last photo shows a typical slice and what the bottom of the pizza looks like. My practice with this pizza was to dress the slice with a glog of extra virgin olive oil, and fresh rosemary and oregano herbs from my garden. I then grated additional grated Parmesan cheese on top of the slice. This is also in line with what I do with the Signature Select Margherita pizza baked in the recommended fashion.
I concluded from the latest exercise that I actually like the Signature Select Margherita pizza better when following the recommended instructions and using the family cut. And it takes less time and effort to make the pizza using the recommended instructions. So, that is what I will do in future efforts with that pizza.
Peter
