Sabatasso's Gluten-Free Frozen Pizza from Costco - Product Review


Sabatasso's Gluten-Free Four-Cheese Pizza Box
Here's what we think about
Sabatasso's Gluten-Free Four-Cheese Pizza
(Today, it comes in a 3-pack instead of 2)

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For millions of Americans, eating gluten free is not a lifestyle choice. It is a medical necessity.

For that reason, it has been quite frustrating to learn that most restaurants with gluten-free menus are only offering gluten-light alternatives to those who are eliminating gluten by choice.

They are not providing safe food for those who have celiac disease or even non-celiac gluten sensitivity.

This gluten-free trend often causes those who need gluten-free food choices for health reasons to feel left out.


Hubby experienced that first hand a few years ago. He had to work late one night installing a granite counter top. The woman he was working for ordered pizza for the crew.

She went to their local Domino's Pizza and because they advertised a gluten-free pizza option, she brought one back for him.

Unfortunately, he was sick for several days afterward.

The small print on most gluten-free menus or at a company's website often advises customers that the food is made on shared equipment and prepared in the same areas as regular menu items.

When it comes to pizza, that's especially important due to lingering flour dust in the air.

Companies can't assure their customers that the food they are served will be gluten free.

That seems to be the norm these days.

The focus is on those who are going gluten free by choice and not on those who need to eat that way to live.

Eating out can be very risky.

However, it's just as risky to fill your shopping cart with gluten-free products. The new gluten-free labeling law only defines the term gluten free. It's no guarantee that the food won't make you sick.

For that reason, we were really excited to find Sabatasso's Gluten-Free Frozen Pizza available at Costco.

If you're looking for a great Costco gluten-free pizza, Sabatasso's is a treat you won't want to pass up.

Sabatasso's Gluten-Free Pizza


Costco Gluten-Free Pizza: Freschetta Versus Sabatasso's


Ordinarily, we don't eat gluten-free frozen meals.

Hubby tried a few when he had to go out of state on business a few years ago and said they were so skimpy and bad that he went to the local Safeway and picked up a ready-cooked rotisserie chicken and lived on that for a few days instead.

Making a gluten-free pizza crust from scratch isn't always an option.

Homemade gluten-free pizza dough has to be timed just right.

It requires that you raise the dough and then pre-bake it before you add the sauce, toppings, and bake it again.

That's quite time-consuming.

Plus, it requires you to be home for the afternoon.

When I saw a Freschetta commercial on television announcing their new gluten-free frozen pizza, we went to several grocery stores in our area trying to find one.

I thought that since we can never go out for a quick burger when time is cramped, having a couple of frozen gluten-free pizzas in the freezer would be a good idea.

Unfortunately, we struck out. They didn't sell Freschetta gluten-free pizza at our local Utah grocery back then. But after doing an online search, I discovered that Freschetta used to be called Sabatasso's a few years ago, and Sabatasso's gluten-free frozen pizza was available at Costco.

Apparently, Sabatasso's is a Costco exclusive brand now, so if you don't have a Costco card, try looking for Freschetta Gluten-Free Pizza at your local grocery store instead.

Since then, we have tried Freshetta and it's the same thing except that the Costco gluten-free pizza is much cheaper. Freshetta will set you back 10 bucks for a single pizza, while you can get 3 pizzas at Costco for about 15.

Sabatasso's Pizzeria Thin and Crispy Gluten-Free Pizza


The only type of Sabatasso's pizza that Costco sells is a Four Cheese pizza. It might be different in different areas, but that is what they had in Utah, and that's also what they sell here in the Fort-Worth area of Texas, as well.

Costco's gluten-free pizza comes in a 3-pack, individually wrapped for convenience, and includes:
  • pizza sauce
  • mozzarella cheese
  • fontina cheese
  • parmesan cheese
  • asiago cheese
This is similar to what Against the Grain offers, but this pizza is much smaller. It's not as small as Rudi's or Udi's frozen pizza crusts are, though.

Rudi's and Udi's crusts are only big enough for one person.

These Costco pizzas are medium-size, so they are large enough to serve both hubby and I without having to stop and make up a side dish. Cut into 8 slices, they would also serve 3 or 4 if you have things to go with it.

Cost is fairly reasonable.

The 3-pack was about $15.50. That comes to $5 for a quick meal for the two of us.

The crust is made from:
  • rice flour
  • buckwheat flour
  • and tapioca starch
These pizzas do have xanthan gum, but Bob's Red Mill is now claiming that their xanthan gum is fed corn instead of wheat.

They are also certified to be gluten-free by the Celiac Sprue Association. The CSA is one of the most strict gluten-free certification programs available.

The pizzas are guaranteed to be less than 5 ppm of gluten.

This is super nice for those of us who are super-sensitive celiacs. I don't have to worry about the xanthan gum that's in there anymore, and in my experience, products certified to up to 5 can be used more often than those that are only certified for up to 10.

The pizza is called "thin and crispy," but it's not cracker-thin.

At least, it wasn't when hubby and I cooked one last month.

It's thinner than the dough I make myself from this gluten-free french bread recipe, but it's not cracker-like at all. Course, we do add extra toppings, which is going to make the pizza less firm than if you just went with the cheese itself.

Single Slice of Sabatasso's Frozen Gluten-Free Four-Cheese Pizza with extra toppings
If you decide to really pile on the toppings,
you'll need to bake it a little bit longer

Hubby loves to pile on the gluten-free pizza toppings, so that's what we used to do:
  • pepperoni
  • Canadian bacon
  • chopped onions
  • chopped mushrooms
  • sliced olives
  • extra mozzarella cheese
Today, we no longer do that because the pizza comes out crisper if you don't put so many things on there and leave off the extra cheese. Going with fewer items and no extra cheese also makes the pizza more varied because I don't cook the same type of pizza twice.

I like to use whatever we have in the house.

I bake the pizza on a pizza pan with holes in it that has been sprayed with non-stick spray, rather than baking it directly on the oven rack. So, that's why the pizza still comes out great with all the extra toppings, but it does take longer to bake than the box recommends.
(Available at Amazon)

We also use a pizza cutter that is specifically made for cutting pizza just like this one:
(Available at Amazon)

We picked ours up at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, but they are also available online. This one is particularly nice between it's specifically designed for thin-and-crispy pizzas, due to the way that blade is curved.

It's super, super sharp, so you'll want to be very careful when you're hand-washing it.

Sabatasso's Gluten-Free Four-Cheese Pizza baked with extra toppings and cheese
Sabatasso's Gluten-Free Four-Cheese Pizza from Costco
baked with extra toppings and cheese

My Personal Opinion of Costco's Gluten-Free Pizza


It took me a while to figure out how to bake it correctly.

We had recently moved into a basement apartment with an electric cookstove top oven that worked properly, so it took a few pizzas to get it right.

The box said to bake it at 425 degrees.

That's accurate.

I didn't bake it that hot at first, and the pizza crust came out doughy and under-baked. It wasn't even close to being done, especially since we added a lot of extra toppings.

Too many, in fact.

Even with the higher temps, it took 20 minutes for the gluten-free pizza to bake.

I didn't place the pizza directly on the oven rack as the box advises. Not with all of those toppings.

If you're just cooking this Costco frozen pizza as is, don't bake it as long as I did. Check it after 10 minutes, just like the box says. You can always cook it longer if you need to, but there's no way to undo burnt.

Overall, the taste isn't bad.

It was much better when I cut down on the amount of toppings. In fact, when I limited the toppings to 3, the crust came out perfect almost every single time!

The crust is a bit crisper that way.

Hubby can go quite overboard when it comes to toppings, and the more toppings you pile on it, the softer the crust will be.

I prefer my homemade gluten-free pizza since frozen cheese doesn't taste as good as fresh cheeses do, and I can use Ragu Pizza Sauce that way, but for a frozen pizza, it makes a great quick-and-easy meal.

This frozen gluten-free pizza from Costco is definitely something that we keep in the freezer.

I even have pepperoni packed in baggies in the freezer as well.

With pepperoni and/or Canadian bacon divided into meal-sized portions, I can whip up a pizza at the last minute without much hassle.

How about you?

What's your favorite brand of frozen gluten-free pizza?

Got any tips to add?

UTAH UPDATE:

Sabatasso's Pizza disappeared from that local Costco for several weeks. During that time, I complained on their "how are we doing" form about the lack of pizza and other gluten-free items they used to carry.

Since people at the subreddits for celiac disease and gluten-free diets were still buying the frozen pizza at their own local Costco, it wasn't a distribution problem.

When the pizza finally showed back up at our Costco, the crust had dramatically changed.

It was super-thin and baked up hard like a gluten-free cracker, rather than crisp like a pizza crust.

We still continued to buy one every now and then, but we didn't eat it almost every week like we were doing before.

TEXAS UPDATE:


I don't know if the crust changed again, but when we moved into the house we just bought and I baked one of these in my brand new cookstove-top electric oven I didn't have any problems.

I limited the toppings to 3 or 4 and didn't overload the crust. I also left the cheese off the top, so the pepperoni would be slightly crispy instead of really soft.

I baked it in the middle of the oven, and it came out perfect.

Vickie Ewell Bio


Comments

  1. Thank you so much for sharing that and the tomato/pesto/parmesan suggestion. I'll have to try that. Appreciate your comments.

    ReplyDelete

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