Trader Joe’s Roasted Garlic & Pesto Pizza with Deep Fried Crust Review

The last time we stepped into our local Trader Joe’s store, the whole place was abuzz with talk of the hottest new item in the TJ’s frozen lineup, the Trader Joe’s Roasted Garlic & Pesto Pizza with Deep Fried Crust. Customers were grabbing them off the shelves as fast as the employees could stock them, and our cashier’s eyes lit up when she spotted the pizza in our cart.

Obviously, we’re pretty excited to try this thing and see what it’s all about.

Before we dig in, we should point out that while this appears to be vegetarian-friendly, it does contain animal rennet. According to the ingredients list, it may also contain traces of cod, crab, lobster, and shrimp. We assure you, our vegetarian staffers were absolutely heartbroken over this. But our non-vegetarian staffers carried on with this review, as is their duty.

Cooking this is a simple matter. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit, then put the pizza on a baking sheet and pop it into the oven for 13 to 15 minutes. If you want to skip the baking sheet, you can do that, but we used one when we cooked ours. We also cooked ours for 16 minutes, which is a minute longer than the recommended cook time. (To read the cooking instructions directly off the box, check out our package scans at the bottom of this review.)

According to the packaging, the dough “goes through a special leavening and fermentation process over the course of 3 to 4 days.” We’re also promised that we’ve never tried anything like this chewy crust.

Well, the package isn’t wrong; we really haven’t had anything quite like this. We were expecting a hearty Naples-style crust, but this has a soft sponginess to it that we weren’t expecting. Yes, it’s crispy around the edges, and even a bit on the bottom, but it’s also really soft, and almost cakey, near the top.

There’s also an oiliness to it, and just a little bit of sweetness as well. This really is a unique crust, and a very good one.

This pizza is mostly crust, but that’s obviously not the only part of this that matters. There’s a four-cheese blend on top, which includes burrata, mozzarella, provolone, and parmigiano. On top of that is big gobs of pesto (with pine nuts and cashews) and sprinkles of garlic. It all comes together in a way that really works for us. This is a treat that really stands apart from the crowd.

According to the box, one third of this pizza is a serving size. If you stick with that much pizza, you’re looking at 420 calories and 890 mg of pizza. If you stuff the entire thing into your face at once, you’re up to 1,270 calories and 2,670 mg of sodium. This pizza isn’t enormous, but it is kind of filling because the crust is so thick. While we’re sure someone out there is going to eat a full pizza in a sitting, we didn’t find that to be necessary. Half the pizza seems like a really good serving size to us.

The Trader Joe’s Roasted Garlic & Pesto Pizza with Deep Fried Crust is an excellent off-the-beaten-path pizza. It’s not what we expected when we picked it up, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t love it. Unfortunately, the calorie count makes this more of a one-time thing that a regular part of our meal rotation, but we’re glad to have gotten to try it regardless. We can certainly see what all the buzz is about.

To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this Trader Joe’s frozen pizza, check out our package scans below.