Amyʻs Margherita Pizza
Frozen pizzas are popular as evidenced by their prominent presence in your groceryʻs freezer. According to consumerresearch.com Americans spent over 3 billion on frozen pizzas in 2009. A throw in the oven while you watch TV food - frozen pizza seems more American and popular than apple pie. This is one in a series of hubs exploring frozen margherita pizzas. A fresh margherita pizza at Firewood Cafe in San Francisco, was undoubtably my best pizza experience ever. I have been taste testing margherita pizzas ever since. Mmm . . . crispy crust slathered with tomato sauce, melted mozzarella and fresh basil . . . margherita pizzas are my favorite. I have a few more brands to try, but Amyʻs Pizza Margherita is my favorite frozen pizza yet.
Cons
- Not enough tomatoes on the first Amyʻs pizza I tried.
- The pizza is truly handmade, so you can not count on each pizza tasting exactly alike.
Pros
- Organic wheat flour and tomatoes
- No preservatives
- Fresh basil leaves
- No trans fats
- The pizza is truly hand made, so each entree is unique.
- No bioengineered ingredients
- 15 minutes to cook - including oven preheat
- Perfect combination of cheese, tomato sauce and basil on the second Amyʻs pizza I tried.
Handmade Frozen Pizza
Amyʻs margherita pizza is handmade. According to Amyʻs website, entrees are individually created. Amyʻs crust is hand stretched by a person instead of a machine. In her blog,Tracy Scala - Corporate Sensory Manager states "we hand mix a lot of things because it delivers better flavor and texture. People are a critical ingredient to why our food is so special, but as we all know with people sometimes come mistakes." My first Amyʻs margherita pizza was lacking tomatoes, my second Amyʻs margherita pizza was perfect and truly the freshest tasting frozen pizza I have ever tasted. Says Scala "We do our best to minimize those mistakes, but no one is perfect. We have a very complex process as you might have already imagined already, which keeps me, and my team constantly on our toes."
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Serving size: 176 g | |
| Calories | 400 |
| Calories from Fat | 153 |
| % Daily Value * | |
| Fat 17 g | 26% |
| Saturated fat 5 g | 25% |
| Unsaturated fat 0 g | |
| Carbohydrates 47 g | 16% |
| Sugar 4 g | |
| Fiber 3 g | 12% |
| Protein 16 g | 32% |
| Cholesterol 15 mg | 5% |
| * The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA. | |
Amyʻs Kitchen
Rachel and Andy Berliner created Amyʻs Kitchen in 1987, the same year their daughter Amy was born. Ruth had grown up on her familyʻs organic farm, established in the 50's, long before doing so was popular. Andy, as former shareholder and President of Magic Mountain Herb Tea Company envisioned an organic frozen food niche in the supermarket dindustry. The entire family plays a role in this successful vegetarian frozen food company. Uncles, nephews, grandmothers and Amy herself contribute to Amyʻs Kitchenʻs financial success. Every entree has the following bright red note on the back of the box: 0g Trans Fat - No Added MSG - No Preservatives. Every entree also has a bright green circle on the front cover claiming no GMOs or bioengineered ingredients.
How important is organic food?
Brands and Recipes
Two other margherita pizzas I have taste tested are California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) and Safeway Select (SS). Ironically, these two pizzas looked and tasted the same. Did a SS spy decode the CPK margherita pizza recipe? Exciting as that idea is, turns out both SS and CPK pizzas are distributed by the same manufacturer. Kraft, which is now owned by Nestle is the number one frozen pizza manufacturer in Canada and the U.S.
