For a city best known for tangy sourdough and loaded Mission-style burritos, San Francisco is surprisingly home to quite a few pizza joints. From crispy Detroit-style to classic New York-style slices, you can find just about every type of pie in the Bay Area, and there are some pretty fun stories behind them. A perfect example is Del Popolo, a family-owned operation that grew from a makeshift food truck to earn a spot on Tasting Table's list of the best pizza places in every state.
Now, the origins of the French bread pizza are mysterious. If you ask Stouffer's, the brand will say that it was the first to cook up the dish - and it did launch the first frozen version in 1974. Others will tell you a food truck owner named Bob Petrillose invented it years before, or that the idea dated back even further than the food truck.
The school cafeteria line was always a hit-or-miss situation. Some days, there would be chicken tenders with a side of mac and cheese, and other days, there would be soggy hamburgers with greasy string beans. While we yearn for the good ol' days of fresh-baked Otis Spunkmeyer cookies and bags of animal crackers, we certainly don't miss the days when the cafeteria lunchline served food that tasted like it hadn't seen the inside of a spice cabinet in 20 years.
He explains, "Look for frozen pizzas with fewer additives - avoid dough conditioners in the crust and anti-caking agents like cellulose in the cheese." Anti-caking agents are additives used to prevent shredded cheese from clumping or sticking together. Sometimes, the agents are cellulose (or wood pulp) and other times, it's cornstarch. Anti-caking agents can interfere with how the cheese melts and browns, which is something pizza purists like Gemignani prefer to avoid.
South Shore natives Jesse Rosenwald and Jessica Bosworth, a.k.a. "J-Squared," made the Bay State proud this week, becoming MasterChef's first duo of champions-and with a New England-inspired meal, to boot. After 15 seasons, the Fox reality cooking show shook up the formula: pitting a dozen pairs against each other instead of individual competitors and adding new judge Tiffany Derry alongside returning judges Gordon Ramsay and Joe Bastianich.
In my opinion, Red Baron makes the best frozen pizza money can buy. I especially love the pepperoni French bread version. Crunchy, saucy, and delightfully cheesy, it's a wonderful dish that can go from frozen to hot in minutes. Although the package suggests baking the pizza in the oven, I like to air fry two slices for about six minutes.
Universally loved and endlessly customizable, pizza is often a staple meal to satisfy any cheesy or zesty cravings. No matter which way you slice it (pun intended), there's nothing like enjoying your favorite pizza. Even frozen ones can do the trick, whether you're on a time crunch or simply have a few options on hand. Most major grocery chains, such as Walmart, have a lower-priced store brand version of frozen pizza.
