Value4Money reviews frozen pepperoni pizzas.
Goodfella's Delicia Pepperoni
3.09 for 285 grams (€10.84 a kilo)
Highs: "Everything is good about this pizza," says one child drafted in to help in the testing. And she's almost entirely right. This really is rather good. The dough is excellent, and the strong pepperoni is complemented by a healthy amount of cheese. Of all the pizzas tasted, this comes closest to the real thing.
Lows: What you want is a rich, herby tomato sauce, but what you get is a slightly watery tomato base. A shame, particularly as the company has almost everything else spot on. Another problem is the cost. This may be the leader in the taste test, but it is also the most expensive.
Verdict: Good job, Goodfella's
Star rating: ****
Dr Oetker Ristorante Pizza Salame
€2.99 for 325 grams (9.20 a kilo)
Highs: This is topped with salami rather than pepperoni - clearly to its advantage, as it has a much more substantial flavour than the other pizzas. The sauce is thick and rich, and although it is hard to tell if the generous sprinklings of herbs make any difference to the taste, they make it more pleasing to the eye.
Lows: It's difficult to find the cheese, and the dough is a little chewy. Quite how the base manages this while being wafer-thin is hard to say. The pizza looks and tastes extremely greasy, but then that won't come as a surprise: it's hardly renowned as a healthy, low-fat food.
Verdict: The good, the bad, the ugly
Star rating: ***
Gino Ginelli Pepperoni Italian Wood Oven Pizza
3.19 for 390 grams (8.18 a kilo)
Highs: It looks good, it smells good and it tastes good. The base is excellent, and the pepperoni is good and spicy. It also comes with more cheese than the competition, and the herbs sprinkled on top actually add to the flavour. In terms of price it wins hands down, with only the Dunnes Stores pizza cheaper.
Lows: The vividly coloured peppers scattered on top of this pizza are meant, presumably, to compensate for the paucity of pepperoni. They add virtually nothing to the taste, however, and make the whole thing look a lot less attractive. It's also the saltiest of the pizzas tried.
Verdict: Good taste, good value
Star rating: ****
Dunnes Stores Pepperoni Thin & Crispy Pizza
€2.49 for 333 grams (€7.48 a kilo)
Highs: This is the cheapest pizza tested, and although it looks fine and has a healthy amount of pepperoni topping (in so far as the words pepperoni and healthy can appear in the same sentence) there is a problem with the taste: there is none.
Lows: It is impossible to remember what this tastes like only moments after you've eaten it. The flavour deficit might be explained by the "cheese substitute" listed in the ingredients. The base is more like toast than pizza dough, which isn't unpleasant if you like toast but is hardly authentic.
Verdict: Tasteless
Star rating: **
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