June 8, 2007

Frontera Frozen Pizzas by Rick Bayless

I will admit to not being a fan of frozen pizzas. You can read a number of reviews that have been posted to the Dr. Gourmet web site to see just how poorly they usually fare. Pizza in general is something I am pretty particular about and much prefer to make my own.

That said, I was intrigued to find frozen single serve pizzas at the grocery that are produced by Frontera. This is a company (and a restaurant) owned by Rick Bayless. While I am not a fan of frozen pizza, I am a fan of Rick Bayless. He's a fantastic chef who has amazing knowledge and skill especially in Mexican cooking. He "wrote the book" on contemporary Mexican and Southwest cookery.

So I eagerly scooped up two of the pizzas. The ones that I chose are actually single serving size and are labeled "deep dish." Baking the pizzas by the directions for the oven (Mr. Bayless labels this "When you want the best pizza") yielded mixed results.

The Roasted Vegetables with Red, Yellow and Poblano Peppers is actually pretty good. While the crust is fair to good, the toppings taste something like roasted vegetables and have a nice southwestern zing to them (mostly from the poblano peppers). This is a good choice for your freezer for emergencies or maybe to take for lunch instead of eating fast food. The Spinach with Poblano Peppers and Ricotta is not so hot though. It had the flavor of a frozen pizza and was about as good as the Wolfgang Puck take out pizzas that you see at the airport.

Don't, I repeat, do not microwave these pizzas. They go from being pretty good (vegetable) and fair (spinach) to inedible. The crust becomes tough and chewy and even the good toppings of the Roasted Vegetable version can't rescue the pizza.

At about 370 calories and 10 grams of fat they are a pretty good choice, although there's a lot of salt at over 800 mg.

Bottom line: Roasted veggie pretty good, spinach not so great. DON'T microwave.