pizza | Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants)

Trader Joe’s MARGHERITA PIZZA, reviewed

03 Nov 2025 1 Comment

by promacnyc in bread, Changed, cheese, DIY, frozen, News, Prices, Products, recipe, review, spices, Trader Joes, WhatsGoodAtTJ? Tags: Amalfi, dinner, Food, Italian, Napoli, Neopolitan, no preservatives, ovolacto, pizza, price, product, Products, Rave, recipe, Recipes, review, style, Trader Joes, value, vegetarian

Trader Joe’s MARGHERITA PIZZA

“Cooked in a wood burning oven” – Product Of Italy

https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/margherita-pizza-080530

Perhaps the first thing that will stand out to you when you are looking in the pizza shelves at Trader Joe’s and you see this MARGHERITA PIZZA is frankly that this looks pretty good and then you see that it costs $4.79. Under five bucks for this? It’s looks like it almost came out of a pizza place’s oven.

If it actually tastes anything close to as good as it looks in their picture, that’s hard to beat.

My neighbor tried this first and told me she really liked it. She was pretty impressed with it and was amazed that it cost under five bucks. So we got one to try out as I’ve not had this before.

(Here’s what it looks like right out of the box, frozen, wrapped)

You can see the crust is partially pre-baked, with the ingredients for us to finish baking it.

Here’s what TJ’s has to say about this pizza (which has been around for over a decade or more):

“This classic Margherita Pizza starts with a hand-stretched, Amalfi style crust, the dough for which is fermented for a full 24 hours prior to kicking off the pizza-making process. This new-and-much-improved crust is thin, soft, and bubbly, with a slightly thicker, chewy edge. In this Pizza’s previous iteration, they topped said crust with a standard tomato sauce; in this version, however, they top it with a passata—a.k.a. a traditional Italian tomato sauce made by sieving ripe tomatoes into a silky-smooth purée, allowing the pure, tomato flavor to really shine. The pies are finished with fresh mozzarella rounds, shredded Grana Padano and carefully placed basil leaves, then baked in wood-burning stone ovens, flash-frozen, and sent to sail the culinary seas…” (-Trader Joe’s website)

So they changed (improved) it but as this is my first time with it, the new version is the only one I know, so here’s my review.

(Should say first, I am one of those people who will on occasion actually make a pizza from scratch, including fermenting my dough 3 days in the fridge?) Anyway here’s our impression of Trader Joe’s PIZZA MARGHERITA.

Overall my wife and I liked this very much. This is a very tasty pizza and has many good points I liked. There one or two areas I thought it could be improved on.

The good points with this pizza is first if you like Neapolitan style pizza, I would call this pretty “authentic” in that its in the nature of a pizza you might get in Naples rather than a “NY Style” pizza. , Meaning the kind of pizza that you may want to eat with a knife and fork as many Italians do (Neapolitan style, not Roman). The reason being the center of the pizza crust may be too thin to support ingredients to hold it up and eat as a slice, and the center may be a little soft and juicy.

I confess I did actually try to get the bottom a bit crispier by putting it back in after I pulled it out the first time, for about another two minutes. In hindsight this was a mistake, as I over-baked it a little and doing that made the outside border crust a bit dry and hard. So try the recommended times (the box says bake 9-12 minutes at 425 F) If you have a pizza stone or steel, I would use that. If not, even a 1/2 sheet pan will do. And as always pre-heat your oven for at least 20-30 minutes, though every oven is a bit different.

The pizza looked almost like it came out of a pizza shop – in Italy!

The low moisture skim mozzarella cheese in large round slices when baked up was really good, and it did the stringy cheese thing everyone loves to see on Instagram. The sauce is very simple. Its just “passata” or pure tomato puréed up in the classic Margherita way, so not a “pizza sauce” as you may be used to. I think it tasted just the tiniest bit tart or sour to me but not bad.

The used to have a pizza sauce. I wonder if that might be bit better tasting but then it would not be “Margherita” which is very simple, basically 3-4 ingredients. It had another cheese, Grana Padano, grated over and that too added a nice touch, You can even see it’s dressed with a little bit of fresh basil!

FIXING THIS UP: You can improve this easily, and think that is worth doing. I would suggest if you make this pizza, you fix it up a bit with any or all of the following (all optional of course) : Sliver of garlic, a sprinkle of dried oregano, a little basil (dried or better still, fresh if you have that) and maybe a drizzle of say Hot Honey to add a touch of sweetness and spice? Certainly add a drizzle of good olive oil and a sprinkling of more cheese, some grated Parmigiano or Pecorino when you take it out of the oven. I would do all this the next time I make this pizza.

I overdid the baking by maybe two minutes as I put it back to try to get the bottom crispier (it comes out a bit soft), which I know was a mistake, as you see how dark my crust came out. If I made it again, I would stick to the 9-12 mins as suggested on the box PLUS I might brush the border with a little olive oil before baking it.

The whole pizza is 15 ounces. I think this can be a dinner for two adults, maybe with a little salad or veggie on the side. In sum, while not perfect this is quite a tasty pizza and well worth trying at what is a great price!

Calories: 1/3 of this equals about 310 calories — but trust me you will probably eat at least 1/2 not a 1/3. Still this is on the lower side for pizza I think if thats like 450 cals?

How does this TJ pizza rank among all the other offers in the pizza department from Trader Joe’s? To me it’s up there. However I might rank a few others they have, just a hair above this one (such as the Pizza Parlanno and the Buratta, Prosciutto and Arugula one) as they have “more going on” of course. For a simple Neapolitan style pizza, this is quite good, if thats what you are looking for.

The ingredient list as you can see, is quite simple so that’s a nice plus!

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS FROM FROZEN: Preheat oven to 425. Bake for 9-12 minutes until crust is LIGHTLY BROWNED

Trader Joe’s (Trader Giotto’s) PIZZA PARLANNO

12 Aug 2025 2 Comments

by promacnyc in baked, cheese, dairy, DIY, frozen, General, Italian, Prices, Products, Rave, review, snacks, Staple, Trader Joes, Uncategorized, update, WhatsGoodAtTJ? Tags: crust, dinner, Food, gluten, Italian, pizza, popular, product, Products, Rave, recipe, Recipes, review, Trader Joes, wheat

PIZZA PARLANNO with Italian sausage, uncured pepperoni, roasted peppers and onions

Popular! I got the last one in the shelf.

Trader Joe’s on Pizza Parlanno:

https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/pizza-parlanno-002517

“First, there’s that its stone baked, with a wheat flour crust, which our supplier imports all the way from Italy. Next, there’s the impressive array of toppings piled high on every pie: zesty tomato sauce; a savory trio of mozzarella, Parmesan, and Romano cheeses; sweet roasted bell peppers and onions; savory crumbles of Italian sausage; and finally, delightfully spicy slices of uncured pepperoni.”

Apparently Trader Joe’s / Trader Giotto) Pizza Parlanno is said to be quite a customer and crew member favorite. The proof of which it’s been around for 15 years.

I hadn’t tried this yet so finally got around to trying it for a review.

My honest review is: Both my wife and I really enjoyed this pizza. We both gave this a big thumbs up.

It’s a kind of “half and half” pepperoni / sausage- one side sausage and roasted peppers and the other side pepperoni.

The favorite of the two sides for us both was the sausage side, having much more flavors from lots of different things. It has crumbled bits of (cooked) sausage plus roasted red bell pepper, green pepper, roasted onions, plus the tomato sauce and the cheese. The small pieces of uncased pork sausage was good. I can really taste fennel seeds, which for me makes it really taste Italian. I loved the roasted red and green bell peppers.

Personally I am not a huge pepperoni pizza eater as I usually find pepperoni too greasy and oily but here the uncured pepperoni on this was tasty, thin and not at all greasy. Didn’t curl up either. Stayed flat.

The (imported) crust on the Pizza Parlanno is on the thin side. More crunchy than chewy, it kind of reminded me of the “bar pizza” style though its not that thin. The crust held up and didn’t bend under the toppings. I make my own dough on occasion so am quite picky. I would prefer a crust a bit thicker with more chew however the crust is not bad and pretty crispy.

I baked the pizza quite well as I read that you should get this well browned and really take Trader Joe’s suggested time of “bake for 10 minutes” with a huge grain of salt. Every oven is a bit different but 10 minutes as they list is probably not enough time to go from frozen to ready so plan to give it a bit longer, an extra two minutes at least, if not more. I did more like 14-25 minutes in total? I just watched it closely towards the end and let it it get just to the point where it’s really browned which is how I like pizza.

Originally I thought the pizza looked like it might be a little big for two people. Ha! I thought my wife and I might not eat the whole pizza at one go. That we might leave a slice or two for the next day. But guess what? I was wrong . I was so good, the two of us ended up devouring the whole thing. Along with an arugula salad. We said, it’s never going to be as good as right now fresh out of the oven.

COOKING: Pre-heat your oven to 450. If you own a pizza steel or stone put that in. Depending on your oven it may take 15-25 minutes to get to temp. When oven is ready, slide the pizza onto the steel or stone. If you don’t have those, just put on a baking sheet and put that on the center or top rack. I put foil underneath the pizza, for easy clean up. Bake the pizza until it looks very well browned. They say 10-12 minutes at 450 but I think it will be more like 12-15 minutes depending on your oven). Take it out and let it cool for about 2 minutes before cutting. I cut ours into 4.

Figured at 4 slices to the pizza this states, 330 calories per slice.

This pizza makes a very easy snack or meal in about 15 minutes, all for about the price of what you might pay for a pepperoni slice at a pizza joint. For just over five bucks, you can not go wrong with this pizza, if you like sausage, etc.

I gotta say, pretty amazing for $5.50.

I would buy this again.

Trader Giotto’s PIzza Parlanno $5.49 (18.2 oz)

Toppings: Italian sausage, uncured pepperoni, roasted bell peppers, and roasted onions. Crust: Stone-baked wheat flour crust. Sauce: A savory sauce, described as not spicy or sweet. Cheeses: Mozzarella, Parmesan, and Romano. Customer Favorite: A popular item at Trader Joe’s, often praised for its flavor and topping variety.

Trader Joe’s Whole Wheat LAVASH FLATBREAD

16 Jul 2025 4 Comments

by promacnyc in All Natural, baked, bread, cheese, condiments, fresh, New, News, Pantry, Prices, Products, Rave, review, snacks, Staple, Trader Joes, vegetarian, WhatsGoodAtTJ? Tags: air fryer, Armenian, bread, breads, Flatbread, Food, healthy, hummus, Levant, low carb, Middle Eastern, no preservatives, pizza, product, Products, Rave, recipe, Recipes, review, Trader Joes, vegetarian, versatile, whole grains, Whole Wheat

“Trader Joe’s authentic Lavash Flatbread is a delicious and versatile alternative to sliced bread for sandwiches. Use for wrap sandwiches, burritos, soft tacos or flatbread pizza”

What’s Lavash? Its a traditional Armenian / Middle Eastern flatbread. In 2014, lavash was added to UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage, highlighting its cultural significance

https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/lavash-the-preparation-meaning-and-appearance-of-traditional-bread-as-an-expression-of-culture-in-armenia-00985

I’ve been wanting to try TJ’s Lavash for awhile and finally got around to it. In short, I really liked Trader Joe’s LAVASH. This bread is a great Trader Joe’s product. I give this a big thumbs up.

As you can see in the picture, it’s a thin flatbread. It comes in a large square and is soft and flexible, especially after warming. Its good for many things, like making sandwich wraps or roll-ups, thin sandwiches, tacos, burrito type dishes or just using it to scoop up hummus or any kind of dip or pieces of food for that matter. Grilled meat or chicken? Great as a base for little cheese bites. Wrap some grilled halloumi cheese up in this. You could use it to make a Club Sandwich as they suggest on the package. This bread can even used as the base for making a thin pizza. (someone left a Comment here that they make pizza in the Air Fryer with this lavash) Again, this stuff is really versatile.

https://foodaciously.com/recipe/lavash-wrap

The Lavash becomes better warmed up a little bit. It will get more flexible and softer, so easier to roll. To warm it, I usually just put it right on the burner for about 10 seconds moving it around and flipping it. Or sometimes I warm in a pan or griddle, covered.

Once warm eat right away or keep the lavash warm as you would tortillas when you serve.

The sheets are large but are scored in the middle so they can be torn in half easily. To store it more than a day or two I keep the Lavash in the freezer, tightly sealed. It’s so thin it can defrost in just a few minutes and I am usually tossing it on a burner or into a pan to warm it.

It you baked it it would get crispy enough that it could be like a pita chip.

I like the Egg Burrito suggestion they have on the package: warm the lavash, add scrambled eggs and grated cheese and roll up like a burrito.

Its made with Whole Wheat so healthy. It’s low fat as it is so thin and low cal. A 1/2 flatbread has only 90 calories, yet has 5 gr of Protein and is a good source of fiber. It is also LOW CARB as its so thin.

Lavash is quite versatile, and as you explore using it, you will find many ways to use this interesting tasty flatbread. Again,perfect for scooping up hummus and middle eastern mezze or other dishes. Use it like Naan with Indian foods.

TIP: The lavash paired perfectly with Trader Joe’s Middle Eastern BEEF KEBABS. I cooked the kebabs, and put them in warm lavash with a garlic yogurt sauce with arugula; Or use the Tzaziki. Yum!! Basically a 2 ingredient meal….

lavash pizza (mozz, goat cheese, tomatos, red onion, olive oil, herbs)

The Best Lavash Pizza (Ready in 15 Minutes)

Trader Joe’s Whole Wheat Lavash Flatbread, $2.99 (10.5 oz, 295g)

4 large squares per package (or 8 half squares)

I would buy it again

Trader Joe’s “Caro Sugo” Italian Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce, review

18 Apr 2025 2 Comments

by promacnyc in All Natural, bread, fresh, Italian, jar, New, News, Pantry, Prices, Products, Rave, recipe, review, spices, Staple, Trader Joes, Uncategorized, vegetarian Tags: artisanal, dinner, Food, fresh, healthy, Italian, Italy, item, must try, no preservatives, pasta, pizza, product, Products, Rave, Recipes, review, sauce, taste, tomato, Trader Joes, vegan gluten free, vegetarian

NEW ITEM

RAVE

(“Caro Sugo” loosely translates to “dear or favorite sauce”)

Trader Joe’s New Item, their CARO SUGO Italian tomato basic pasta sauce seems to be all over the internet with people saying this new Trader Joe’s tomato sauce is Da Bomb. The best pasta sauce ever. That it is better than the highly rated Rao’s (and cheaper).

So I had to check this out for a review. Well, guess what? Sometimes the hype is true. I was really impressed with this. This sauce is SO GOOD.

Its a wonderful tasty sauce. The freshest, most natural tasting, perfect, artisanal tomato sauce, like a sauce that could have been cooked by your Italian nonna back in Italy. I found this as good as everybody seems to be saying it is. A 10 out of 10.

Caro Sugo just has such a fresh, natural taste from excellent probably freshly harvested tomatoes plus Italian olive oil and fresh (not dried) garlic, and whole basil leaves. It’s got bits of tomato, a few little chunks. It’s not smooth like many jarred sauces are. Meaning not over processed.

Imported of course, this sauce is produced in Italy for Trader Joe’s. Specifically from the region of Puglia, which is the “heel of the boot” on a map. The supplier who makes this also grows the tomatoes, picks them and processes them. Close to where they are grown, so the tomatoes are as fresh as possible and you can actually taste that freshness.

Ingredients listed are: Whole peeled tomatoes, olive oil, diced onion, sea salt, chopped garlic, chopped basic, dried oregano.

Everything except for the oregano is a fresh ingredient. There is no sugar added. The sauce has a slight natural sweetness from good tomatoes.

Where’s what Trader Joe’s says about this sauce:

https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/caro-sugo-italian-tomato-basil-pasta-sauce-079753

TJ’s : “….Our supplier not only makes this sauce, but also grows the sweet, juicy tomatoes that make it so special. The rest of the ingredients are simple and fresh, including olive oil, diced onion & chopped garlic (not powders), chopped fresh basil, and sea salt. The only “dried” ingredient is oregano, which was chosen purposefully for its more concentrated flavor.

What will you do with Trader Joe’s Caro Sugo Italian Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce? The answer is: anything you like! As you can imagine, it’s delicious with your favorite TJ’s pasta or ravioli. Try it with our Homestyle Angus Beef Meatballs on a Sandwich Roll topped with melted Sliced Provolone. You’ll also find this Tomato Sauce shines on pizzas, in shakshuka, or even as a dipping sauce for our Breaded Mozzarella Cheese Sticks!”

As they say do not limit yourself to just thinking of this pasta sauce. This sauce is a great sauce for cooking. PIZZA? Yes, I am thinking. I definitely want to try making a pizza using this Caro Sugo sauce and the Mozzarella log for one thing. My dough is developing now in the fridge. I will report back here with pix!

This is a Must Try. Granted this costs more than some other quite good pasta Trader Joe’s sauces which cost less than half the price ($1.99) However if you want to taste an artisanal imported Italian sauce which is truly Gourmet Level, this is well worth trying at least once. People who have are saying they go back and buy a few jars at a time.

CARO SUGO Italian tomato basic pasta sauce $4.99 (24 oz)

PIzza made with this Caro Sugo sauce (my wife said I should have used more sauce). I made dough but you can buy TJ’s dough. Whole milk mozz. Fresh basil. It was yummy.

Trader Joe’s delicious BURRATA, PROSCIUTTO & ARUGULA FLATBREAD / Pizza

11 Apr 2025 1 Comment

by promacnyc in All Natural, baked, bread, dairy, fresh, frozen, General, Italian, New, News, Pantry, Prices, Products, Rave, review, snacks, spices, Trader Joes, Uncategorized, WhatsGoodAtTJ? Tags: dinner, Flatbread, Food, frozen, gluten, Italian, pizza, product, Products, recipe, Recipes, Trader Joes

Is Trader Joe’s “BURRATA, PROSCIUTTO and ARUGULA FLATBREAD” worth buying?

Please read the review if you want to see if I thought it was worth $5.50

Here’s my honest review of this cheesy flatbread. But first, is this a Flatbread or is this Pizza? Are they almost the same? I’m pretty sure all of us look at this and think “pizza”, but if Trader Joe’s wants to call it “flatbread” that’s fine by me. I guess they think it sounds slightly classier? Actually this is pretty classy.

I was in the mood to try either this one or the MUSHROOM TRUFFLE flatbread shopping a few days ago. I thought I would try this first as I especially love these two things: Arugula and Prosciutto.

Here’s what it looks like right out of the box, frozen. You get two packages, one being the flatbread Plus a small package of a few slices of prosciutto. Why you ask is it separate? Aha! Because it will be added later, after the pizza is baked!

The picture on the box looks very good. Is Trader Joe’s BURRATA, PROSCIUTTO and ARUGULA FLATBREAD as good as the picture?

You be the judge. Here’s what it looked like after I finished baking it and added the prosciutto on top….

Pretty attractive, right?! Good enough that you could pretend this came out of the oven at a restaurant. It pretty much looked the same as their beautiful pizza in the picture. OK, theirs seems to have a bit more arugula that the one I got, but other than that, almost pretty the same.

Verdict? THIS IS YUMMY. VERY GOOD. We really enjoyed it as part of our dinner. Both my wife and I found this pizza equal to a good restaurants version. That prosciutto? It gives it a huge bump of Umami. It definitely adds a ton of flavor and really makes this great.

Trader Joe’s made a smart decision to keep the prosciutto to add after baking. If they had put the prosciutto on the frozen pizza, it probably would just melt away into oblivion during baking or burn.

The pizza crust base was good and all the toppings match perfectly with the crust. It says it has burrata, mozzarella, pecorino, and marscapone cheese in there as well. All these cheeses, melt together and blend into a nice very cheesy mix. The arugula adds a very nice vegetable note however I didn’t think there was quite enough of it. I wished they put on just a little more arugula. I did add a drizzle of EVOO olive oil just before serving, plus a few grinds of fresh black pepper.

We both enjoyed this flatbread and thought this was quite yummy. Our only complaint was we wished it was a tiny just a tiny bit bigger so we each could have more! Two of us ate this for dinner along with a salad and a side of vegetables.

With our salad and a veggie, this was just enough for two of us to share for dinner. I would say this pizza might make one very large portion for one. But if you eat this whole thing by yourself that would be about 900 calories. Me, I wouldn’t eat the whole thing myself I figure this realistically could serve two people – along with some other things. If two portions, I figure that half would probably mean about 450 calories each. Not terrible at all and it was just enough to be satisfying (though we said we could eat more if there was more!)

HOW TO COOK: Remove from freezer and remove the plastic. You will use the prosciutto later, just leave that out. Set oven to 450. Let it heat up for at least 20 minutes or until it lets you know it’s 450. While the oven is heating, they want you to let the pizza and prosciutto rest on the counter for about 20 minutes, to defrost a bit. When the oven is ready, put the flatbread on a baking sheet or baking tray and put it in the oven (without prosciutto!)

Let it bake for about 12 minutes or until edges a nice golden brown color and the crust looks nice and crisp. In our oven, I found 12 minutes was not enough time. I put it back for maybe another 2-4 minutes, and I think I could have still added another minute. If you look at the picture on the box you will see the crust is really well baked and very golden brown, which is exactly how you want it to look like, without burning of course. So as every oven is different you will have to judge the time. Keep checking it every minute or so after 12 mins.

When it looks ready take it out of the oven and let it rest about one minute, maybe on a cutting board or rack. After the rest, now add the prosciutto. In my package, there were 3 nice slices. I peeled them apart and cut it in half to make 6 pieces, which I tried to roll up a bit into rosettes. Put your prosciutto around the pizza in about 6 bundles. It will melt a little bit into the warm pizza. Using a long knife, you can cut the flatbread up in half or quarters to Serve.

Enjoy!

Optional: You could also grate on a little Parmigiano and add a drizzle of EVOO. I did and it made it even better. A sprinkle of hot pepper if you are a fan? Why not. If you have any arugula, I would add a few sprigs all over.

YUM.

Trader Joe’s BURRATA, PROSCIUTTO and ARUGULA FLATBREAD was $5.49 (12 oz) Is it worth that? Absolutely.

I would buy this again.

Portions/Calories: The Nutrition label describes this as being 290 calories / portion HOWEVER they count this pizza as containing 3 portions. HA! That might be a snack, not a portion, for an adult that is. I figure half a pizza (ie, 2 portions) might have about 450 calories/portion?

Trader Joe’s Super Sweet Whole Peeled MARZANINO TOMATOES

24 Jul 2023 1 Comment

by promacnyc in All Natural, can, General, Italian, New, News, Pantry, Prices, Products, Rave, recipe, Recipes, Staple, Trader Joes, Uncategorized, vegetarian, WhatsGoodAtTJ? Tags: Food, healthy, Italian, no preservatives, pasta, pizza, product, Products, Rave, review, sauce, vegan gluten free, vegetarian

Everybody now knows that San Marzano Tomatoes are considered the ultimate canned tomatoes to make an Italian dish. Trader Joe’s came out with these that are “Marzanino tomatoes” (little Marzano) which I guess are in the same family but smaller than the standard San Marzano and possibly sweeter. The can has the small tomatoes in juice, cooked and peeled and ready to use in a dish. I usually get down and dirty and just dump them into a bowl and crush them up with my fingers to prep them for cooking in a sauce or dish.

These tomatoes were very tasty and a little sweet. They are great for making any tomato sauce or dish that calls for tomatoes, including pizza. I did make pizza using these as my fresh sauce. After crushing the tomatoes with my fingers, I used this as my fresh tomato sauce for my own version of a pizza Margherita, with fresh basil and mozzarella. The finished pizza came out terrific*. “Product of Italy” $2.99 a can.

*(Pizza dough – I made my own from scratch but if that’s too much for you, just buy the bag of fresh pizza dough from TJ’s ($1.49) – or you can use the ready to bake rectangular pizza crust there in the breads section.

Trader Joe’s PIZZA BREAD CHEESE

24 Apr 2023 Leave a comment

by promacnyc in baked, bread, cheese, dairy, DIY, fresh, General, Italian, New, News, Pantry, Prices, Products, Rave, recipe, Recipes, Staple, Trader Joes, Uncategorized, update, WhatsGoodAtTJ? Tags: cheese, grilled, pizza, Products, Rave, review, Trader Joes

This flavor is the one I’m now seeing of TJ’s yummy “bread cheese“. This “pizza seasoned bread cheese” is quite good, perhaps dangerously good!

Just grilling it with some halved cherry tomatoes basically I came up with kind of a “deconstructed pizza” when I served the soft warm cheese with grilled cherry tomatoes and toasted bread. A drizzle of EVOO and a sprig of fresh basil completed the picture. What’s not to like? All the flavor and fun of pizza in five minutes. Eat it while it’s still gooey and melt-y. I would say a package made roughly two portions. I’d go with “sauté” and not microwave as grilling it will brown it more and so be better that way. This Pizza Bread cheese version is now $1.99 (!) Used to be over $4.

RANT: TUSCANO MARINARA SAUCE (discontinued) + Marinara RECIPE

13 Jan 2022 4 Comments

by promacnyc in Discontinued, Italian, Rant, recipe, Recipes, Trader Joes Tags: discontinued, gravy, Italian, pizza, Products, rant, recipe, review, sauce, Trader Joes

“Trader Giotto’s” Low Fat Tuscan Marinara

RANT

Ode to yet another discontinued Trader Joe’s product, a classic rant about an excellent TJ product, which they discontinued! Some people thought this was the best marinara sauce on the market. Many were bumbed to learn TJ’s Discontinued their favorite tomato sauce! So why am I writing about this now? Well the other day I happened to be clearing out my pantry and found I had a can of this Marinara way in the back. I opened it and tasted it and was pretty shocked to see how good it was. This marinara is, or should we say was, a terrific sauce. For one thing it’s not super smooth, it’s full of chunks of tomatoes like a homemade sauce you had put together. The current glass jars of Marinara sauce that Trader Joe’s replaced this with are smooth. I made a pasta dish using this Marinara and the dish turned out really well. I made a pizza with it a few days later which also turned out great. So yes, it’s a crime TJ’s got rid of this great and very useful sauce. Mind boggling. So just posting this Rant and sorry you won’t be able to find this really great product anymore . At least TJ’s still sells the 28 oz cans of crushed or diced tomatoes which will make you a great sauce with little effor. I always have cans of tomatoes in the pantry as well as tomato paste (can and/or tube) So if you are inclined to make your own sauce, which is not hard and I think is worth the little effort it takes. Here’s an EASY HOMEMADE MARINARA RECIPE from NatashasKitchen, link below.

Easy Homemade Marinara Sauce (VIDEO)

TIP (1) IMO adding a tablespoon of tomato paste at the start will make it even better (2) My mom taught me useful advice: Just double up the recipe when you cook some things because for the same amount of effort you will have another meal. You can also freeze the extra batch.

Pizza from scratch; made using this terrific marinara sauce

Easy Pizza with Tandoori Naan

24 Mar 2020 2 Comments

by promacnyc in General, Products, Rave, recipe, Recipes, Trader Joes Tags: cheese, dinner, easy, fast, fresh, mozzarella, olive oil, pizza, product, Products, Rave, recipe, review

When I saw these frozen TANDOORI NAAN, I had an idea… Could I use these naan for the “base” of a pizza? If so than I could make pizza in mere seconds! OK it actually took me more like 5 minutes to assemble these pizzas (see pic) and pop them in a hot oven. But the idea? It basically worked fine. Using these Naan breads makes it super fast and easy to whip up some individual sized pizzas almost instantly. Just spread some of your favorite sauce, put on some cheese, and pop them in the oven, and Bingo you got a fresh hot pizza in about 10-15 minutes with almost no work at all.

As you can see in the pictures, I simply put some marinara on. I put slices of TJ whole milk mozzarella on, then threw it in the oven on a baking sheet for about 10-12 minutes at 400 .

Yes, I spruced these up a little adding a few sliced mushrooms and a few sliced asparagus to make it a bit “veggie”. I had this stuff in the fridge. Now I turned on the broiler for the last minute or two to really get the top nice and browned (I over did this by a few seconds so be careful if you do the broiler browning part). When they came out, I put some fresh grated parmesan on for good measure, and a drizzle of EVOO.

DELICIOUS!

naanpizza3

The Naan Pizza turned out quite good as you can probably tell from the pic. We ate one each with a salad for dinner and that made a very satisfying (and tasty!) dinner for us. Making these with the Naan requires so little time and effort. Yes the naan is not a real pizza base, it is more bread-y than a real pizza but seriously this was so fast, easy and cheap that making PIZZA NAAN is certainly worth giving a try sometime. TIP: Buy and try this with the GARLIC NAAN version TJ has as well. Obviously the Trader Joe’s Naan are great used in the traditional way too. For example accompanying some of the TJ Masala Chickpeas (frozen section) which are delicious!

A pack of 4 Naan is $1.99 (50 cents each, not bad huh). These are great to have in your freezer for pizza or Indian food or to use in many imaginative ways whenever you are in the mood.

Pizza 102 – “Getting More Advanced” No Knead Dough

10 Mar 2014 3 Comments

by promacnyc in Blog, DIY, General, Products, Rave, recipe, Recipes Tags: fresh, Grana Padano, Jim Lahey, No Knead Dough, olive oil, pizza, recipe, Trader Joes

“Pizza 102”

Pizza (No Knead Dough) Canned crushed tom., fresh tomato, garlic, mozz, Grana Padano, EVOO, arugula topping…

Once you really get into making your own pizza, the next evolutionary step for you to take might be to make your own dough!

No…really! Its easier than you think. Especially now as over the last few years there’s been a kind of revolutionary dough recipe and technique that has caught on like wild fire. I’m referring to “No Knead Dough” which thanks to both its creator, Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery, and the internet, which has spread the recipe to an enormous number of people who’ve tried it, has started many, including yours truly on this truly DIY fun and tasty path.

You can learn a lot by watching Jim Lahey show how to make homemade pizza with no knead dough: