A nice lower calorie version of a favorite pizza. The cheese was good as always, the crust was a tease, and the pepperoni came up short.
Before Outsider Detroit Style pizza became my new favorite frozen pizza, Freschetta held the top spot in my house. Their rising crust is just delicious, but this time at the store I noticed they had a thin crust pizza. With as much pizza as we eat for this blog, I thought this would be a nice, lower-calorie version to try. I'm sad to say it just didn't taste the same without the self-rising crust.
Obviously we can start with the crust. Most of the time the baking instructions tell you to place the pizza on the rack. Not on a pan or baking sheet, just on the rack. This freaks me out. I do not want cheese bubbling off the edges and gunking up the bottom of my oven. I used to just place my pizzas on a piece of foil in the oven, but I noticed my crust wouldn't crisp in the center. So I bought a very simple pizza pan from Target and now I almost always get a nice crisp on the bottom of my crusts.
With this crust being thinner, I was slightly worried it would make it too crisp, but it cooked perfectly. Sadly, the crust didn't deliver any real flavor to the pizza as a whole. The crispy edges reminded me of that wonderful taste you get from the rising crust version, but it was lacking overall. I don't know what it is, but the self rising crust just has this amazing pillowy texture and a wonderful flavor that they just couldn't replicate in the thin version. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great.
For the sauce, there was just a thin layer. I know that with a thin pizza you have to go lighter on the sauce, otherwise your crust won't cook correctly and you end up with a sloppy mess. But the more I eat thin crust pizzas the more I realize why I tend to not order them. If I were to offer thin crusts pizzas on my menu, I might pop the crust in the oven for about 5-10 minutes so it can crisp up a bit, pull it out and give it sauce and toppings before throwing it back in the oven to finish baking. You just can't do that with a frozen pizza unfortunately. Their sauce is good though. It is definitely on the sweet/sugary end with very little spice to it. I would say it's a safe bet for you if you have stomach sensitivities to very acidic foods.
The cheese is always good when you get a Freschetta. It's always a fresh (not low moisture) mozzarella so it cooks very evenly and has a great flavor. It also pairs very well with a garlic salt. If it's your first time reading one of my blog posts, it's important to know that I will throw garlic salt on any pizza. Sometimes because it's bland, but most often because it adds a great flavor! The garlic salt on a Freschetta just takes it to the next level for me. It pairs so well with the cheese they use.
I was a little sad about the pepperoni though. Typically their pepperoni has a nice spice and bite to it, but this time it was very bland. I want to assume, because we are in a pandemic, that maybe they had to get their meat from a different source for the time being. I will have to get this pizza again once things get back to normal. But this pepperoni might leave someone grabbing the pepper shaker or some kind of hot sauce if you are like me and like a bit of heat in your pepperoni.
Overall, if you like Freschetta, and want an option that cuts 540 calories from the whole pizza, this would be a nice alternative for you. But if you love the self-rising crust from the original Freschetta pizza, I don't think this thin crust version will leave you feeling satisfied.