Our Favorite Store-Bought Frozen Cheese Pizza Comes From A Brand Famous For Its Italian Sauce

If a frozen pizza brand is going to put out a solid product, it's got to be good even in the most basic version: cheese pizza. We did the hard work and tried 10 store-bought frozen cheese pizzas to rank them, and it turns out that despite their simplicity they can indeed run the gamut between extremely disappointing to downright delicious. A few things did surprise us. For one, the popular brand DiGiorno landed squarely in the middle of the pack while a frozen version of a pizza chain's pie scored highly (California Pizza Kitchen). Our absolute favorite came from a brand that's not normally known for its pizza, but rather its sauce.

We found Rao's Brick Oven Five Cheese pizza was hands down our favorite frozen cheese pie for multiple reasons. The cheeses include whole milk mozzarella, provolone, fontina, Romano, and parmesan; and the pizza itself features a crisp, satisfying crust. Of course, there's the matter of Rao's famous sauce. Our writer said, "The very first bite was a reminder of why we are a Rao's family. The brand's jarred marinara is hands down the best quality and flavor you will ever get from a jarred sauce."

If you haven't heard by now, Rao's pasta sauces really are in a league of their own. Even though Rao's costs much more than other store brands, its tomato-based sauces are about as close as you can get to homemade. (I almost always have some on hand at home thanks to Costco shopping trips.) The reason Rao's is so good is because it's made with quality ingredients, and not too many of them, either. These include tomatoes from Italy and a visibly evident amount of olive oil. There's no artificial ingredients, nor are there any tomato purees, pastes, or bitter herbs.

Rao's hails from a New York-based restaurant of the same name, and based off its skill with anything-but-basic tomato sauce, the fact that we loved its cheese pizza shouldn't be a big shock. Even celebrity chef Ina Garten reaches for Rao's products when she doesn't want to make her red sauce from scratch. Rao's clearly knows its way around a good marinara, and a pizza just seems like the next logical step, even if it's frozen. It probably won't surprise you to find out that Rao's also sells a jarred pizza sauce, so if you're in the mood to make your own (mostly from scratch), your homemade pizza's already got a leg up.