DiGiorno Still Can't Beat Out a Real Pizzeria.

 DiGiorno Pizzeria Style Pizza  

DiGiorno once again is trying to convince the consumer that making a frozen pizza is better than getting one made fresh at a pizzeria, or by your own hand. Their new Pizzeria style crust is preservative free; score two points!   The sauce is plentiful and flavorful, but someone had a heavy hand with the oregano, so zesty should be added onto the front panel description.  It certainly made my tongue sing and dance.  The four cheese style is cheesy; it melts well and is spread out fairly evenly, so you get a nice mouthful with each bite.

..  The new style of crust is supposed to be the major selling point of this pizza; "Crispy outside, soft and airy inside".  The baking temperature is 375F and that made me wonder why, since most varieties of frozen pizza use temperatures between 400F to 450F.  Looking at the pizza you can see why, the crust has been prebaked before the addition of sauce and cheese; then frozen for packaging and resale.  Once baked, the crust looks slightly browner and you can see the airiness when you cut the slices.  However, with a truly authentic crispy crust, each bite should come off easily in the mouth, but the DiGiorno is chewy and you have to pull a bit with your teeth to get each individual bite.  It's not a good mouth feel.

Perhaps the Nestle company located in Illinois, which owns the DiGiorno name, should spend some time in real New York City pizzerias and learn what the word "authentic" really means.  Until then....practice, practice, practice DiGiorno, you're not there yet.

Mary Cokenour

Palermo's Pizza is Far from Primo.

Palermo's Primo Thin Pizza

Website: http://www.palermospizza.com/

Every now and then I look for a frozen pizza that I can have in the freezer for spur of the moment cravings. Being in an area where the nearest decent pizzeria is an hour away, or not having the time or energy to make fresh, forces this issue to the freezer section. So, with their bragging of "third generation of the family business", "connections to Palermo, Italy", and "freshest, quality ingredients", I looked forward to a good substitute for freshly made. Sadly, I was to be disappointed, not once, but twice, as I gave this product two trials.

The first pizza I made was the "Cheese Lovers" which lists mozzarella, white cheddar (that's a Wisconsin addition, not an Italian one), provolone, parmesan and romano cheeses on the front panel; on the Ingredient listing, however, it only states cultured milk and water as the first two items. Wheat flour and tomatoes are the next two major components; less than two percent are: soybean oil, salt, sugar, olive oil, spices, garlic powder, vinegar and enzymes. Doesn't sound like much in there, and where are the Italian herbs?

Following the directions, I preheated the oven to 450F, placed the pizza on the lowest rack and waited the minimum of eight minutes. Checking on the pizza, while the edges were browned, the center still looked uncooked, so I left it in for only another minute before I smelled burning. Opening the oven, the cheese was puffed upward, while oil and cheese had begun to drip onto the oven bottom. I pulled the pizza out and wiped up the spill quickly, but my smoke alarm went off anyway.

The crust is indeed crisp and ultra thin, very much similar to "matzo crackers" or saltine crackers, but without the salt; crispy, thin and tasteless. The "robust tomato sauce" is a simple smear of tomato sauce without any seasonings; the cheeses were oily and not pleasing to the mouth. I sprinkled a little of my own seasonings onto the pizza, but it was truly not helpful; I ended up tossing it out.

I had also purchased a Pepperoni pizza and cooked that one up to see if the addition of pepperoni would be helpful to the overall product. The cooking time was longer (10 to 15 minutes), at 10 minutes it was still uncooked, at 12 minutes though it was dark and overcooked; the bottom of my oven covered in oily residue and smoking. I tossed it out, locked the oven and set the cleaning function on.

Overall, Palermo's Pizza is a waste of money, that is unless you are truly looking for a good excuse to clean your oven.

Mary Cokenour