This Frozen Pizza Hack Is Straight from an Italian Pizza Pro

You might assume that an Italian pizza maker would turn their nose up at a frozen pizza. As it turns out, an Italian pizza maker named Christian is actively giving tips for making frozen pizza better!

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Who is this pizza master you speak of?

Christian has been developing and shipping pies from Bologna, Italy to our beloved Trader Joe’s shelves since 1994, and he recently dished out some advice on an episode of the Inside Trader Joe’s podcast, appropriately quirkily titled “Pie-ning for Pizza at Trader Joe’s.”

What’s up with TJ’s pizza?

Christian revealed that the pizza dough is hand-stretched and rested for 24 hours before being baked in an oven fueled by wood “from the mountains between Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany.” We don’t know much about Italian tourism, but something about that description made us feel like we were reading a travel brochure and needed to book a trip immediately. 

But, since we have too many responsibilities and too little money to jetset to Italy, we’ll make use of the frozen pizzas we can get ahold of, and Christian’s pro tip for optimizing: Thaw your pizza before heating it in the oven. 

Why bother with the extra step?

According to Christian, you can help your frozen pizza taste like it’s straight out of the wood-fired oven by letting it thaw prior to baking it in your probably-not-wood-fired oven. It seems too simple to be true, but The Kitchn actually did some digging on this, and found that slight thawing lets the oven heat the pizza evenly, and gets you a crisp crust without a burn.

We know that when you’re fiending for a pizza, the last thing you want to do is wait patiently for nature to take its course and gently unfreeze your dough, but it really doesn’t take long at all. Just a few minutes on the counter while your oven is pre-heating can make all the difference. You can get your pizza even closer to that pizzeria quality with extra-high heat and a pizza stone or cast iron skillet. So go ahead and send out that e-vite or group chat or scream into the ether about that pizza night that you’ve been wanting to host!