Conte's Margherita Pizza with Roasted Garlic and Olive Oil

When I made my previous pizza post, I declared myself to be something of a "traditionalist" as it comes to pizza pie. This is very true! It is also generally true that I tend to prefer my pizzas with meat on them. And yet! I believe I have found the perfect gluten-free frozen pizza, and its face is meatless! Can it truly be so? Well, yes. Conte's foods have been popping up in the freezer sections of Albuquerque's finer groceries for... maybe a year, now? Suffice to say, I've a few things to get cracking on, review-wise! But let's talk pizza.

I'll admit, I didn't know what a Margherita pizza was before I tried Conte's. I mean, it sounds like something one should order on the rocks, rather than from their local Whole Foods. So eating this pizza was both delicious, and educational! More than that, it was long-lasting. Why? Well, it's a big pizza. I don't have pictures to back me up, unfortuately, but unlike other pizzas I have reviewed, these are about a foot in diameter, so either dine with a friend or you're going to have leftovers. The composition of the pizza is somewhat non-surprising: thin crust, thin layer of sauce, thin layer of cheese, but... the sauce! The sauce is lovely. The crust is nicely pliable. The cheese is... cheese. It's hard to screw up cheese. Now, the two ingredients called out especially by the box are garlic and olive oil. The garlic, well, you can tell it's there. It's also delicious. I don't know quite how it is present, I'll admit. There aren't any specs of material in the pizza that say "hey, I'm garlic!" Possibly I am ignorant in the ways of garlic. But... yeah, I just don't know. And the olive oil? I'm sure it does a great job, but its presence is not particularity keen. But these are minor quibbles. The point is, the pizza is great.

Of course, that greatness comes with a price. Conte's defines one of their servings as a quarter of the pizza. And in that quarter toy get... 220 calories, 80 of those from fat, 30 from saturated fat. There's 9g fat (3.5 saturated, 0.5g polyunsaturated, 4g monounsaturated... but no trans fat), and 35mg cholesterol. You're also looking at 550mg sodium and 25g carbs. But hey! 20% of your daily calcium dose is included, as well! Sweet!

In the eyes of this critic, Conte's has delivered a rather fantastic pizza experience. Soon, it will be time to put their other products to the test! Stay tuned...