The Best Frozen Margherita Pizza On The Market Comes From An Iconic Grocery Chain

With all the different pizza styles and topping combinations, it's hard to ever get tired of America's favorite food. But despite all that diversity, one of the most classic crowd-pleasing pizzas out there is the simple yet delicious margherita pizza. We ranked 10 frozen margherita pizzas according to sauce-to-cheese ratio, flavor, and crust texture, and found that the best on the market comes from the iconic Trader Joe's brand. 

Debuting only last year, Trader Joe's margherita pizza is the latest version that claims to be an improvement on the predecessor. We can confirm that Trader Joe's margherita pizza is as authentic as it gets as it's made in Modena, Italy with a hand-stretched crust that is fluffy and thick on the outside, thin and delicate on the bottom. It's also cooked in a wood-fired oven for optimum flavor. 

Instead of a heavily seasoned sauce, this pizza uses passata, a simple yet robust tomato sauce that is thick with a bright balance of tanginess and umami-richness. Mozzarella and Grana Padano cheese and fresh basil rounded out the toppings. Our taste-tester found the cheese pull to be amazing, contrasting the thick sauce beautifully while the basil was the perfect sweet and savory finish. We couldn't have asked for a better margherita pizza from a wood-fired pizza joint, let alone a grocery store freezer aisle. And the price (currently $4.99) is a fraction of what you'd pay at any restaurant, making Trader Joe's margherita pizza as high value as it is high quality.

Trader Joe's customers took to Reddit to post rave reviews for the newest version of the Margherita pizza that one Redditor described as having "plenty of cheese and a robust, slightly sweet, tangy tomato sauce." Another Redditor was especially complementary about the tomato sauce and ratio of toppings, stating, "The tomato sauce is great. Usually the sauce on frozen pizza is acidic and more sour. This was a sweeter taste. And I also like when my pizzas are saucier and this hits all the good points." One reviewer recommends using a pizza stone so that the bottom crust won't get soggy or floppy under the weight of the sauce and cheese. That said, traditional Neapolitan pizzas naturally have a thin, slightly floppy bottom crust to contrast a bubbly charred outer crust. To that effect, says another reviewer, it "Looks closer to the ones I've seen pics/reviews of from Italy or pizza shops that do Italian style margherita."

As the latest, revamped version of the margherita, customers also said it's a vast improvement. "As someone who wasn't a fan of the original TJ's Margherita, this one tastes just about perfect," said one Redditor. Another Redditor was more specific in the ways it outperforms the old version, stating, "The crust is more airy than its predecessor around the edges, mozzarella more real tasting and the sauce more robust." Other customers recommended adding a drizzle of high quality olive oil and fresh basil to elevate the pizza to restaurant-worthy heights.