Safeway Select Margherita Tomato Basil Pizza

March 18, 2009 | Reviewer: Guest Reviewers

Safeway Select Margherita Tomato Basil Pizza Price: $3.00 on sale, reg. $3.69
Serving: 1/2 pizza, 5.8oz.
Calories: 360 per serving
Fat: 18%, 12g
Cholesterol: 8%, 25mg
Sodium: 32%, 770mg
Protein: 14g
Carbohydrates: 16%, 48g
Fiber: 8%, 2g
Sugar: 3g
Weight Watchers Points: 8 per serving

Safeway Select says: A Traditional Margherita Pizza Made with Lightly Seasoned Diced Tomatoes and Basil, with a Blend of Mozzarella, Asiago, Parmesan and Romano Cheeses.

Liza says: Somebody Sure Likes Using Caps Over There. I think they found themselves in a confused panic about capitalizing specific cheese names and decided to throw in a bunch of extra caps just in case they were wrong. That way they could pretend it was just some kind of poetic free verse. Anyhow, let me get the bitchy part out of the way first: A “traditional” Margherita pizza? O rilly? ‘Cause I have never seen Asiago, Parmesan and Romano cheeses on a “traditional” Margherita. Fresh Buffalo Mozzarella, fresh basil, and fresh tomatoes are the only required toppings for a Margherita pizza. Maybe a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil. That’s it, though.

Pizza pedantics aside, this little seven-inch rising-crust number was really quite good. The crust was both nicely doughy inside and crisp on the outside; it tasted very similar to a Freschetta crust, which doesn’t surprise me because house brands are often made with the exact same ingredients as name brands, in the exact same facilities, and are sometimes the exact same product with different packaging. If you like Freschetta, I’m fairly confident you would like the Safeway Select.

This pizza doesn’t have tomato sauce, but its diced tomatoes were decently tomatoey, not pink and acidic as is so often the case. The ingredient list doesn’t specify, but they tasted like they could be plum tomatoes. I liked the four-cheese blend well enough, but because three of the four were dry cheeses, this pizza isn’t gooey and melty. It’s pretty self-contained and won’t leave long strings of elastic mozzarella draping over your keyboard at work. The cheeses were nicely salty and a little nutty, and had cooked to a perfect golden-brown. I have mixed feelings about the basil, though. My first couple of bites were impressively bright with plenty of zingy basil, but then some other pieces had no discernible basil at all.

By the way, this is one of the few frozen entrees I’ve come across that offered high-altitude cooking instructions on the back. Those of us who live way up in the sky appreciate that. In this case, 20-26 minutes in a preheated 400 degree oven was the recommended cooking time, but it took 31 for my pizza to get lightly browned. I must also note that half of a seven-inch pizza is not going to satisfy most people, so let’s just assume we’re all going to eat the whole thing and be done with it. You could do much worse than infrequently consuming 720 calories for your main meal of the day. Would I buy this pizza again? Yeah, because even at the regular price of $3.69 it’s cheaper than Amy’s Solid Gold Crust pizza topped with black truffles and unicorn meat. Plus, Amy’s crust doesn’t even RISE. It thinks it’s above all that.

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comments

6 Responses to “Safeway Select Margherita Tomato Basil Pizza”

Rory on March 25th, 2009

I never thought I’d develop a crush on a frozen pizza review, but apparently I shouldn’t underestimate the power of a really, really FUNNY frozen pizza review.
Josie on March 25th, 2009

It actually kinda looks like the picture on the box. I’m shocked!
Jessie on March 25th, 2009

HA! Unicorn meat! HA! This review is awesome.
brista on March 25th, 2009

Mmmmm, unicorn.
Ginia on March 27th, 2009

Even though I’m a devoted fan of the Barbecue Chicken Safeway Select Pizza, I haven’t tried this one due to my visceral hatred for asiago cheese. However, after your review, next time these babies are on sale for $2.50, I’m picking one up.
April on April 7th, 2009

Finally….someone takes on Amy and her outrageous prices!!! I only wish it was more headline, LOL!