One of my favorite Pizzas can be difficult to find. Taco Pizza - I had it first at Pizza Hut in the late 1970’s. Regular Crust, hamburger, refried beans, and then topped with lettuce, tomato, and cheese. Pizza Hut discontinued it in the early 80’s. I have found it occasionally at other pizza places.
My favorite lunch was a pizza buffet. For a few bucks you could eat all you wanted. It’s been years since I found a good buffet.
Lasagna pizza…mmmm!! The Old Chicago chain used to make that as a deep-dish version using lasagna pasta as a crust, layering it with…well, lasagna stuff!
Flying Pie out of Boise is my favorite, though. Go ahead, browse the menu. Drool.
Then wish for a brief moment that they delivered to your area, or that you could be there for gourmet night! http://www.flyingpie.com/spctystart.html
p.s. Any pizza place that only offers red sauce doesn’t even rate, in my book. Pfft!
I second the Palermo’s thin crust recommendation and also Home Run Inn (if it’s available where you are.) HRI is a bit thicker and more buttery than the kind I usually like, but it’s one of the only frozen pizzas I really enjoy. (Odd, too, since I’m not a big fan of the restaurant’s pizza itself.)
I haven’t been there, but… I have heard that the best pizza in the country comes from two Umbrian-style places in Old Forge, PA–Ghigiarelli’s and Revello’s, across the street from one another.
Here’s a thread I started about the subject of frozen pizza a while back. If you’re not inclined to sift through that one, my favorite is Jewel’s Chef Kitchen sausage pizza. Wish I had one right now.
They Greeks also placed second in the Hot Dog wars with Rudy’s, or maybe first… with pure dog- best chili dog in tricounties… But there’s some fool Guidos that are trying to shoehorn Jersey on the North Coast with spaghetti sauce dogs…
The Digiorno Self-Rising crust pizzas are quite good. Also, for what they are, I actually LOVE the Lean Cuisine spinach and mushroom, gourmet mushroom, margherita and roasted veggie pizzas.
Also, I’ve NEVER had a disappointing Trader Joe’s frozen pizza! Yummy!
The best pizza I have ever had was a snail pizza. I was in Boulogne, I think. It was a calzone, and it was tomato, cream, garlic, (possibly) mushrooms, and snails. The snails were - obviously - not a powerful taste, but they just added that something which turned a good pizza into a great one.
I used to LOVE Papa Del’s when I was in college in the 70s. Since then, I’ve gotten used to the much more highly spiced pizza in Chicago, and when I go back to Champaign to visit, the P. Del’s seems too bland.
But I agree that even bad pizza is good. Pizza is like sex: when it’s good, it’s really good, and when it’s bad, it’s *still *pretty good!
I love papa murphy’s take and bake pizza. they say you can’t freeze it, but you totally can, its a matter of cooking it properly when you take it out.
Part of why we like frozen pizza and now Papa Murphy’s is that its customizable. Frozen pizza almost always needs additional pepperoni and cheese. Papa Murphy’s reaches a state of sublime if you use a baking stone and an olive oil mister. spray a little olive oil on the stone, put the pizza on it, and spray a little more olive oil around the crust edge, then sprinkle with parmesan. Oooh is that good!
Oooh, taco pizza. I loves me some taco pizza. Also amazing, but hard to find: baked potato pizza. Really - it’s exceptional. (At least, I think it is.)
Damn. Now I want some wood fired pizza, but the nearest place is at least 1/2 hour drive. Bummer.
Well, I know what I’m gonna have for dinner. . .
That being said, pizza’s an art, not a science. I’ve found that the following tends to make otherwise mediocre frozen pizzas palatable.
1.) Get a pizza oven. Seriously. They’re, like, fifty bucks, but they make each pizza taste awesome.
2.) If you’re too cheap for that, get a pizza plate with a bunch of holes in the bottom. Or just put it right on the rack. Do not put it on a regular baking pan with no holes. The crust will end up soggy and tough at the same time. Gross. This is the sin, incidentally, that my extended family used to perform all the time. My immediately family, however, takes pizza Very Seriously, and would never do that.
3.) Cook the cheese to slightly browned. Not to just-melted white. It cuts down on the oilyness, and makes the pizza crisper overall. Make sure to test your oven first, though–there’s a fine line between “slightly browned cheese” and “the crust is burnt.”
I had never heard of Home Run Inn Pizza before until a thread right here on SDMB a few months back. (though I have visited Chicago a few times, and have had great pizza several times on each visit). It sounded like it was worth checking out, so I actually got on their website and found out it was sold here in Salt Lake at a small locally owned grocery chain maybe 10 or so miles from my home. (This is a store I normally would otherwise never visit)
Deciding to try something different, I took a trip in order to pick a Home Run Inn Pizza up. Upon getting to the store, I found that they wanted over 8 dollars for a 10 inch HRI frozen pie. I tried to justify it, (after all I had driven across Salt Lake to find them) but in the end realised it was absolutely assinine to pay the same amount of $$$ for a small frozen pizza as what I could get a large, fresh cooked pizza for at several of my favorite local joints.
I simply can’t get my head around spending the same for a frozen pizza as for a freshly cooked one.
(Apparently I am alone in this thinking this, as I see the grocery stores freezers chock full of “gourmet” frozen pizza for 6, 7 or even 8 bucks a pie—No Thanks)
FWIW, I agree.
Ah, yes, I get so hungry for what I consider ot be the world’s best pizza.
Back in 1966, I worded at the bus station right outside the Eglin AFb east gate. Next door to us was the East Gate Lounge, a kind of funky honky-tonk. I was too young to drink in there, but working the night shift, I would call in my order and lock the station for a couple of minutes and walk over and pick it up.
It just ruined me for every other pizza I’ve ever eaten. Crust was just the right thickness, not too thin, not too thick, and just the right blance between chewy and crispy. Cooked just right, never burned or undercooked. Igredients were fresh and just to die for.
All this, from a bar & grill!
They tore it down around 1970. (I never quite got over that.)
I can get better toppings now, but I’ve never been able to come close to duplicating that crust, or finding a pizza place that did.
I’m all but certain this is the place. Looked it up on the web and it sure looks like it. I wasn’t driving so I wasn’t sure where it was. We had just come from a pre-season Brewers baseball game. The place was freaking packed with a huge line. I remember getting a pizza and eating it on a small bar. Were we next door with it?
This is almost 7 years ago so my memory is a bit fuzzy on it…
…except for the memory of how good that pizza was!!!
DC Area - Ledo’s. Square, thincrusted, chewy cheese, and geasier than necessary.
Why would you? You aren’t a savage.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad slice of pizza from any of the thousands of anonymous pizza by the slice places throughout Manhattan.
But for the “best pizza in New York” you can definitely go with Lombardi’s…or Patsy’s…or Johns…or Grimaldi’s.
Hoboken, NJ also has really good pizza. Grimaldi’s or Beni Tudino’s is best IMHO.
For chain places, I still like Bertucci’s.
Not a fan of Chicago style deep dish though.
I cooked in a restaurant where we made pizzas from scratch.
Observations:
The crust makes all the difference in the world as to whether your pizza will cook evenly. Try to keep it a consistent thickness throughout. Roll it out on a floured surface so it doesn’t stick, first all in one direction and then turn it 90 degrees and roll it back and forth that way. You first want to make a “strip” and then expand it into more of a “square” shape. To finish it off and make it rounded, put it over your fists, gently stretch it using your knuckles, and try to rotate it slowly, still stretching it. If you don’t get close to a perfect circle the first time, don’t worry – that skill comes in time. Throwing it up in the air, you have to really know what you’re doing. When you have the desired size, place it on a pizza screen.
The sauce is usually made out of tomato paste and spices. You can use any spice you like; probably the easiest is “Italian Seasoning”, a version of which most supermarkets have. Other things also are okay, such as regular black pepper, basil, garlic and onion powders, and even fresh garlic and onion diced very small. Apply the sauce liberally over the crust.
The toppings should be the freshest you can get. This is what really customizes the pizza. If you like it, put it on. Two of my favorites are hot Italian sausage (or any other kind), diced onion, and diced green peppers, or sliced green olives with bacon. Whatever you use, cut it (relatively-speaking) small. Long strips of green pepper don’t cook as well as diced does, for example. Any kind of sausage should be cut fairly thin (eg. pepperoni), or put on without the casing, so that it resembles ground meat more than sausage (eg. Italian sausage).
The cheese should be grated, because you can spread it more evenly this way. You definitely want good coverage. Some meats can go either under the cheese or on top of it; it’s all personal preference.
And yes, brown the cheese, just slightly. This makes for a more flavorful pizza.
Frozen pizza is usually okay, for what it is. But made from scratch is better, even better than chain restaurant pizza.
Pizza Hut is absolutely the worst of all – usually greasy on the bottom. Ick.
The best pizza I’ve ever eaten was twenty-something years ago, in the small town of Syracuse, IN from a place called Dangles.
The crust was thin and dusted on the bottom with cornmeal and large grain salt. The toppings were wonderful! Not the usual greasy pepperoni and canned mushrooms common for most pizzas of that time and area, but a sublimely spiced sauce, good quality meats (and a good variety, uncommon back then) and fresh veggies. Mozzerella and romano cheeses on the top.
All of this was available for eat-in or pick up in their cellar location with nothing but a gazebo at the top (hence th name). Wash it down with a cold one and you were in heaven.