Product Review: DiGiorno Rising Crust Pizza

According to the website www.pmq.com, the sales of frozen pizza's rose over the $2 million mark in 1998 and much of that is attributed to the introduction of DiGiorno's self rising pizzas. DiGiorno was the first higher quality frozen pizza on the market, something consumers were eager to try out. It came out on the market in 1996. Kraft Foods owns DiGiorno pizzas.

We've all seen the commercials and heard the slogan, but how does this frozen pizza really match up to the ones made at a local pizzeria. I recently purchased the Four Cheese Pizza from DiGiorno and here is what I thought of it.

The DiGiorno Four Cheese rising crust pizza that I purchased was the 8 inch size. It's big enough for one person to eat as a meal, if you not super hungry, or to eat as a snack with someone else. The baking directions are quite simple, heat your oven to 400 degrees and cook for 19 - 22 minutes. If you want a softer crust, cook on a cookie sheet. For a crispy crust, cook directly on your oven rack. Let the DiGiorno pizza stand for about 5 minutes before eating it so you don't burn the roof of your mouth, ouch!

The pizza rose to about double the height it was. The crust was slightly crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. I cooked it on a cookie sheet for the softer crust effect. It was done in exactly 19 minutes.

It tasted decent. Although it was an all cheese pizza, I still seemed to taste a hint of pepperoni on it. Perhaps it was the sauce or the cheese, but there was definitely a presence of it. It doesn't state any pepperoni on the ingredients list, so maybe I was just one of the spices added to the sauce.

Compared to delivery, DiGiorno did not stand a chance. It's great for a snack or a small meal, but when you are craving hot, delicious pizza, DiGiorno self rising pizza is not as good as delivery in my opinion. There was a good amount of cheese on it, and I liked how there was cheese cooked onto the edges of the crust, but when I want pizza, it just wasn't the right flavor I was looking for, to pig out on.

A serving size for this DiGiorno pizza is 1/3 of the pizza, which is pretty small. To eat the whole pizza, you would be ingesting 27 grams of fat, 810 calories, 60 grams of cholesterol, and 102 grams of carbohydrates.

Other varieties of DiGiorno pizza that are available are DiGiorno Ultimate, 12 inch self rising, Thin Crispy Crust, Cheese stuffed crust, Garlic bread pizza, half & half pizza, Harvest Wheat Thin Crispy Crust, Microwave rising crust, and microwave thin crust.