Here’s how to take a frozen pizza and fancy it up with things in your fridge right now
One of the most expensive meals we ever make at home is homemade pizza.
To be fair, it’s usually in the summer, when tomatoes are perfect and squash blossoms are sold at the farmer’s market. Because we can’t help ourselves, we’ll round it out with prosciutto and fresh mozzarella. And because it’s a whim rather than a planned-event, we’ll also need to buy dough and pizza sauce. In tiny increments we’ll spend nearly $50.
Delivery pizza isn’t much better, starting around $30 before tip.
There is a different way. It’s called pantry pizza.
Think of it this way. In the Harry Potter universe, there’s a room in a castle that has everything you need. Called the Room of Requirement, every house has a version of this room, with stockpiled ingredients and leftover bites. It’s called the refrigerator, and inside likely holds the makings of a fancy and nearly free pizza.
If your fridge is anything like mine, there are treasures to be found here. Perhaps some leftover bits from an early week charcuterie board, a lone pepper in the crisper, half a red onion, a nibble of bacon.
That frozen pizza you smartly picked up on sale at the grocery store is a blank canvas for whatever gourmet bites you can dream up from your pantry. (Note: The New York Times Wirecutter recently named Digiorno Rising Crust pizza and Tombstone’s Original Thin Crust the best frozen pizzas on the market. The Digiorno pizza costs about $6 at Walmart and the Tombstone pizza is around $5.)
After a quick look in my fridge, here are three pies I could make right now from a frozen cheese pizza.
A kind of supreme pizza
There’s a small bag of brussels sprouts left over from a grilled steak on a warm Thursday night. These will be thinly sliced and added raw to the pizza before going in the oven.
Mushrooms, origin unknown, will be sauteed briefly in butter on the stovetop.
There’s also an opened bag of turkey pepperoni and a nubbin of funky bleu cheese from the just-a-taste bin at Whole Foods.
Breakfast pizza for dinner
There’s three leftover slices of bacon that will be cubed up and briefly rendered in a skillet on the stovetop.
Potatoes are always on hand, so I’ll take one and slice it in paper thin rounds. I’ll put the potatoes on first and then the bacon, hoping the bacon fat will help fry the potatoes a bit in the oven.
Halfway through the cooking, I’ll crack an egg right in the middle of the pizza and let it cook. And in this economy, an egg might as well be white truffles.
Corn o’ plenty
This one is inspired by (ripped off from) one of my favorite pizzas at Pizzeria Mercato in Carrboro.
I happen to have some out-of-season corn on the cob because my toddler loves it. I’ll cut it off the cob and briefly fry it and add some shriveled jalapeno slices from a pepper in the crisper.
I’m not entirely confident about this last bit, but there’s a bit of queso left from some playoff football snacking.
What’s in your pizza pantry?
If you’re not trying to create an entirely different pizza, any frozen pie will be improved by a few pantry staples.
- Oregano: Give it a few good shakes.
- Basil: Why not steal a sprig from the plant on your porch?
- Extra cheese: Chances are it’s in your fridge waiting for its big moment.
- Onions: Caramelize one and change your whole meal.
This story was originally published February 12, 2025 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Here’s how to take a frozen pizza and fancy it up with things in your fridge right now."
