Ahh McCain, did you do it again? Eight frozen-pepperoni pizzas tasted and rated
Good Food tastes and rates eight frozen supermarket pepperoni pizzas in the battle to find the best – and worst.
“Geez that white dough is wreaking havoc on my guts.” Massive belch. Then clapping. Welcome to the white noise of a frozen pizza taste test, where we assess and dissect eight pepperoni pizzas.
Because pizza cannot be eaten alone, and playing to the target pizza-eating audience, the tasting team included two teen lovebirds, a smattering of middle-aged people, and one Gen Z-er, who increasingly became known as the Dough Outlier.
We looked at structural integrity, cheese-to-sauce ratio, quality of toppings, and general pizza pizzazz, steadfastly ignoring ingredients lists littered with unsettling numbers of preservatives, colours, and anti-caking agents.
Some pizzas polarised opinions, but overall there was a happy vibe, a certain pizza joie de vivre elicited by the whiffs of freshly baking pizza.
In order from worst to best, here are the results for the greatest pepperoni and salami frozen pizzas.
The Good Food frozen pepperoni pizza taste test
Della Rosa, XXL Gourmet Pepperoni Pizza, $11
Score: 2.5/10
Shredded pepperoni, bolstered by shredded ham, is suspended in a thick cheesy mass, sickly sweet with barbecue and tomato sauce, atop a focaccia-like doorstopper base. Not even the pepperoni-mad teenager could finish this one, which was unfortunate because it’s “40% bigger” with “more pizza than ever before”.
Base: Thick and white.
Overall: Would never go back.
McCain, Pepperoni Family Pizza, Coles and Woolworths, $8.50
Score: 3/10
An incohesive mess of slip-sliding toppings that pooled unattractively in the centre of the doughy base. Thin tomato sauce held flavourless pepperoni, with medium coverage (about eight pieces), atop a squidgy, bread-fest base you could poke faces in, without any bounce-back of dough elasticity.
Base: If you love cakey, bready highly processed white bread, c’mon down!
Overall: “I can’t even finish one piece”; would probably leave it in the freezer.
FroPro Protein Pizza, Pepperoni and Ham, Woolworths, $12.95
Score: 3/10
Poor old FroPro. On the health front, this pizza is the highest performer, with a health-star rating of five and a boast of “50% less carbs”. But in terms of flavour, FroPro really took a beating. “It’s a symphony of blandness, a celebration of mediocrity,” said one taster. The base is a tasteless, claggy situation topped with reduced-fat mozzarella, and a stingy five pieces of sopressa with shredded “pork and beef mix” making up 72 per cent of ingredients. It is also twice the price of more edible options.
Base: Remember making glue in primary school? It tasted like that.
Overall: Frozen pizza ain’t no health poster child.
Buonissimo Pepperoni Pizza, Woolworths, $8.50
Score: 4/10
“Oh that’s awful,” said Teen One. “My piece doesn’t have any pepperoni at all!” Despite the promising picture on the box, with fresh basil leaves scattered at jaunty angles, the taste failed to translate to the plate. This pizza lacked structural integrity, with toppings sliding precariously as the inch-thick dough disc thwacked on the chopping board. “I wouldn’t even feed that to children,” said one outraged mum. Pepperoni was described as “stingy” at only seven pieces, “low rent” and “devony”.
Base: Hated by all except the Dough Outlier, who decreed it the “best base”, loving its thick, cakey nature and zero resistance.
Overall: A gut-plug pizza made for drunk people.
Coles Kitchen, Double Pepperoni, Coles, $6.50
Score: 6/10
“Two stacks of pepperoni everywhere!” said the 14-year-old excitedly. Coles’ generic brand scored second in terms of meaty coverage, and its pepperoni was “extremely edible”, with a zingy, peppery kick. The mozzarella, too, was bounteous but all agreed there could have been more sauce. For a supermarket home-brand pizza, this double-pepp is a little Aussie battler, more likely to please junior tasters than artisan snobs.
Base: White and suitably stodgy, moist, and with zero rebound.
Overall: Solid, middle-ground stalwart; top value.
International Cuisine, Pepperoni, Aldi, $6
Score: 8/10
“I wouldn’t be embarrassed to bring this out,” said one tester. “You wouldn’t be laughed out of your lounge room,” agreed another. Aldi’s offering to the frozen pizza world is a thin-and-crispy pizza, a visually pleasing number with excellent coverage of mild pepperoni (12 per cent, the same as a double), mozzarella, a tomato-paste-rich sauce, and a pervasive yet not unpleasant flavour of dried herbs.
Base: Thin and crispy with good crunch.
Overall: Rock-solid and well-priced easy-pleaser; would buy again.
Dr Oetker Ristorante Pizza Pepperoni, Coles and Woolworths, $9
Score: 8.5/10
Despite this being a blind taste test, “I can spot a Dr Oetker anywhere,” said one tester emphatically – and he was right. “It’s the immaculate spacing between the pepperoni that gives it away.” This Canadian-made pizza delivers the quintessential frozen pizza experience direct to your lounge room while managing to offend no one. It’s for lovers of a thin and crispy base, a tomato sauce with enough tartness to offset the slightly sweet pepperoni, and a combo of mozzarella and edam for extra creamy cheesiness.
Base: White and processed, with plenty of crunch.
Overall: A solid performer in all categories; easy pleaser.
Rustica McCain, Salami and Four Cheese, Coles and Woolworths, $11
Score: 9/10
Stone-baked and “artisan inspired”, this thin ‘n’ crispy little ripper had rich napoli, a good cheese-to-sauce ratio, and bonus splodges of basil pesto. It came topped with good-quality spicy salami (strong coverage at about 13 pieces) and a tasty four-cheese combo of mozzarella, parmesan, provolone and cheddar. Some tasters even went back for a second slice.
Base: Stone-baked, thin, crispy and with good structural integrity.
Overall: “I would totally buy that again”; delicious.
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