DiGiorno Pizzeria! Frozen Pizza: Worth the Exclamation Point?

Somehow, it's become a tradition for Rich and I to get together and eat frozen pizzas on Monday night while watching Monday Night RAW. We get to start the week out by eating what most people save for weekends, save money by getting frozen pizzas, and have quality time watching (while wondering weekly why we keep watching (say that 5 times fast)) grown men pretend to beat each other up while acting through odd story lines that somehow have anything to do with wrestling. 

I've grown to look forward to this tradition. We have our standards- he gets a weird pineapple ham pizza and puts extra sauces on it, and I get my old stand-by, a $3.69 Tombstone pepperoni pizza. And then cover it in half a bag of cheese.

On my weekly oh-crap-I-need-a-pizza-for-tonight trip to Walmart, I suddenly saw something in the frozen pizza isle that caught my eye:

created with care!

I'm not a fan of the high end of frozen pizza- they always make the crust waaaay too big and I feel that the pizza suffers from trying to be something it isn't. A Tombstone, to me, is not something that's trying to fool its eater- it knows it's a frozen pizza, so it just tried to make a solid tasting crust while saving you money and not having some gimmicky rising crust that's never as good as you hope it'll be. This thing looked to have a pretty thin crust for a new fancy pizza, especially one from Digiorno, a company known for having 4 inch crusts. 

It looked like a pretty standard frozen pizza, just covered in spices:

and fatguyfoodblog logos?

I added my standard 9 pounds of cheese on top (I prefer the cheddar and monterey jack mix), and actually cooked it a bit long. But it came out looking great and smelling fantastic. 

I actually eat my FPs with a knife and fork- I feel like without the continuous oven affect of a pizza box, these get cold quickly. I have absolutely nothing to back this theory up, but I feel like cutting out piece by piece keeps the remaining pacman shape hotter for longer. It also forces me to eat a 12 inch pizza much slower than I normally eat pizza, therefore ensuring the pizza lasts me longer than the first 20 minutes of a 3 hour show.

It looked good.

And it was good. VERY good. 

I've been a dedicated fan of Tombstone for several years. Since moving in with these guys and starting the RAW tradition, I've eaten a Tombstone pizza on Monday nights probably 45 weeks out of the year. 

The week after I had this was the first time I got something other than Tombstone for 2 weeks in a row. I don't think I've ever done that. I'm sorry, Tombstone. I'm sure I'll revisit you from time to time when I miss your classic flavor. But for now, that pretty girl I've always had my eyes on who does things you don't and doesn't yell at me is suddenly showing interest in me, and we may just have to take a break. 

What makes this frozen pizza so good is threefold: 

1. The sauce is awesome. It's got a very tangy, sweet flavor that's sweet enough to work perfectly with the other flavors while being acidic and sharp-tangy enough to have a bit of a spice bite to it. 

2. The seasoning they sprinkled so liberally all over the top (which I'm guessing is primarily oregano) actually does add to the flavor- it gives it a bit of bite while making it seem like more of a fancy, real pizza rather than a frozen meal that came in a cardboard box. The pepperoni was great too, and I will definitely be trying their other flavors.

3. Most importantly- the crust is phenomenal. 

I'd describe it as being very similar to that of a Tombstone, but with just the right amount of risen crust and softness. It's perfectly crisp on the outside while also being almost buttery (you can see it in the picture above) and very soft inside. And it has that corny, pleasantly sweet taste that more pizza should aspire to have. Digiorno advertises it as being a preservative-free crust drizzled with olive oil. Sounds good to me!

currently modeling for Dirty Fingernails Illustrated

The short version: This is pretty much a perfect middle ground between a cheaper style, flat crust pizza like Tombstone or Red Baron and a real pizza, partially on the fancy side. For a frozen pizza that costs around $6 and not only is the best frozen pizza I've had (yep, I just said that), but also has a unique enough flavor that I'll specifically want it instead of real pizza every now and then? Put me down. 

A+

This unique spin on a classic was just the stunner the frozen pizza world needed, and my Monday night tradition just kicked it up a notch. 

WHAT?!

oh, also- if you try it and don't like it, Digiorno is offering a money back guarantee. How can you lose?

-review by Mike

Tombstone Double Top Pizzas

I think to most people, frozen pizza is an alternative- the thing you buy and throw in the freezer for when you really want pizza but don't want to spend 12+ bucks on a fresh one. "I'll just get Digiorno for 6 bucks. It's close enough."

I am in the every small minority of people who treat frozen pizza as a separate thing. Sometimes I want frozen pizza. I have always gone with Tombstone because it's like $3.50 and doesn't pretend to be real pizza by having rising dough (that, in my opinion, just turns the entire pizza into 4 pounds of subpar dough). Tombstone's sauce is both sweet and kind of spicy, and I like the crunch of the crust. These things are flat, leaving nowhere for flavor to hide. The dough is merely a plate for deliciousness to be stacked on top. 

So when i saw this, I got pretty excited. What the hell is a double top pizza?

2 times the meat!

It was frighteningly thick compared to a normal Tombstone. 

Yup, that's a lot of topping. 

(2X to be exact)

Here's the beauty in the oven.

And here's a nice side angle. You kind of can't tell how much is going on, but there's a lot. Obviously, I put extra cheese on- much like my feelings for Oreos vs. Double Stuf Oreos, pizza shouldn't exist without extra cheese. And frozen pizza REALLY shouldn't- who are they hiring at these factories? Put some damn cheese on my pizza!

(I go with a montery jack and cheddar combo)

I think this picture illustrates the absurdity of this pizza best. Look at how much topping each piece has. It's ridiculous. I felt full after 2 pieces. Each bite was a battle.

That being said, it was good, you had just better like 4 meat frozen pizzas a LOT if you're planning on getting this. My problem with 4 meat pizzas is that the sausage flavor always seems to overpower everything else. I barely tasted the tiny ham cubes, occasionally tasted the pepperoni, and never tasted bacon- in fact, I just had to look and see what the other meat was. It's that inexistent. It was just sausage, sausage, sausage. It's truly amazing how much is on what is generally considered a thin pizza, but the sausage was just overpowering. 

When I get Tombstones, I just get pepperoni. Call me boring, but there's nothing quite like a pepperoni (and extra cheese) pizza. SO, thankfully Tombstone put out a Double Top Pepperoni too. It was impressive.

This had the same problem though, in that it is absolutely absurd how much pepperoni is on this. Not only did they put what looks like 3 times the amount of pepperoni slices they normally put on top, but they put more of the chopped up stuff in the sauce I always forget about.  

But, there seemed to be more sauce too (to the point where the crust almost got soggy in places), and with extra cheese, this was pretty monumental. Over time, I remembered that I love pepperoni, and this became pretty impressive.

Much like the 4 meat, you had better REALLY like pepperoni if you're considering this. Or maybe just eat a few pieces and call it a day rather than eating the whole thing. This is heartburn and stomache ache city. 

The bottom line: 

Tombstone Double Top 4 Meat Pizza: D. Literally too much topping, and all I tasted was sausage. A waste of other meats.

Tombstone Double Top Pepperoni Pizza: B+. Again, if I'm being honest, it's too much, but honestly, it's pretty freaking awesome. The next time I want to get sick, I'll get one of these again. 

-Mike

DiGiorno Pizza & Boneless Wyngz

Pizza. I can't think of a food more universally awesome. The good folks over at DiGorno's must think that their pizza's are an event to be shared with friends, and not the conquest of a solo fat man sitting on his couch watching episodes of Spartacus on Netflix instant watch, for the fifth, possibly sixth time. So when I was at the store, I was floored by their groundbreaking initiative to pair Pizza AND Wings.

"Wyngz"? eh, whatever.

I opened it up, and thought to myself: "Man that's a lot of food. I don't know if I can do this right now, Pizza AND Wings?" So in my infinite and batman like problem solving prowess, I came up with a solution that would satiate my mouth and mind.

COMBINE THEM

This not only solved the issue of it being too much food to thine eyes, but it also rationalized putting Sweet Baby Rays BBQ Sauce in a beautiful spiral pattern.

Some shredded Pizza cheese to keep the Wyngz sealed tight to the top

23 Minutes later. GLORY IN THE ARENA

Biting into this new found monstrosity was all I had hoped it to be. We all know what a DiGiorno Supreme pizza tastes like, but amp this up to the 2000000th degree, and you've got the DiGiorno ULTIMATE SUPREME BBQ WYNG PIZZA. The Wyngz tasted surprisingly like chicken, and they remained crispy even with the added cheese, and BBQ sauce. I'd do this again in an ironic heartbeat. Overall DiGiorno's creativity, melded with my own, makes for a winning and delicious experience.
-josh

8====D

B+