I’d bought a 3-pack of frozen Carlos Stonebaked Margherita pizza from Aldi about a week ago and they were taking up room in the freezer, so I had to try them out to see what I thought of them.
Now, given a choice, I’d always say that my low priced pizza of choice would be an Asda American Sizzler, bought from their pizza counter – often I’ll have extra jalapeno and extra cheese and a chilli oil added. At about £4 or so, these are as good as most pizzas. As that’d involve a 16 mile round trip to the nearest Asda, my second choice would be a similar pizza in the chilled units at Sainsbury’s, a chilli beef pizza goes down a treat, priced £2.10.
However, there are times when you simply want a cheap pizza, in the freezer, to grab and cook and eat without any form of excitement or ceremony. This is what I’d bought the Carlos Stonebaked Margherita pizza for. The 3-pack had cost me £2.49, so 83p per pizza.
I didn’t expect the Earth to move when I ate it – so I wasn’t disappointed when it didn’t.
1) Pizza Toppings: Red Onion, Cheddar & Sweet Chilli
The first of the pack I topped with some frozen red onion from my freezer, some grated cheddar and a splash of a random bottle of sweet chilli sauce I’ve got. I put the oven shelf on the bottom and so it took 20 minutes to cook this – next time I’ll raise it up to the middle shelf.
Review: Passable. Not inedible, but not a “keeper”. It was crispy, which is to be expected of a thin base – to be honest, given the choice, I’d prefer a pizza base to be thicker and softer, but I knew they were thin base when I bought them so I can’t complain about that. I’ll see how the others go.
2) Pizza Toppings: Red Onion, Chorizo, Chilli Pepper, Cheddar Cheese
For the second pizza I topped it with four extras from my freezer. Making a small dent in the stock of frozen red onion, frozen chorizo, frozen chilli peppers from the freezer – although they had been bought and frozen specifically for this purpose, so it’s good I’m using them.
This was the second of the 3-pack and I decided to break into the pack of chorizo I’d frozen – and to start to use the two packs of chillies I had frozen months ago and kept forgetting about.
This time I moved the oven shelf up and cooked the pizza, without pre-heating, for 15 minutes.
Review: Passable. Not inedible, but nothing so great I’d tell people they HAD to try them for themselves. Again, the thin base was crispy, which isn’t really how I like pizza. But I tried them and now I know these are really too thin and too crispy for me.
This is a cheap pizza base/Margherita pizza, which is fine to use as a pizza base to build on. At 83p what do you expect?
I might buy these pizzas in the future, but I’d rather try another brand if given the choice. Edible, but not life changing.