Adding Blue Cheese To Frozen Pizza? Timing Is Everything

A sprinkle of pungent blue cheese can be a one-stop shop for dimensional vegetarian pizzas with character. We use blue cheese to make this extra cheesy spinach artichoke pizza with shallots, garlic, and thyme. Sounds ambitious? It doesn't have to be. This distinctive cheese can also bring instant intrigue to one-dimensional frozen pizzas.

To do it successfully, crumble the blue cheese on top of your baked frozen pizza right after it comes out of the oven. All cheese is made from a basic structure of protein, fat, and water. Under the heat of the oven, the fat begins to melt and the protein denatures, both of which change its overall texture. When it comes to blue cheese, neither the lower water content nor the ripples of mold perform especially well in the oven. Plus, your fresh-out-of-the-oven pizza will still be plenty warm enough to melt that blue cheese if you sprinkle it on right away. For the most even baking, we also recommend halving your frozen pizza before popping it in the oven.

A finishing sprinkle of high-quality fromage can make a major difference in both the taste and texture of a frozen pizza foundation. Tombstone Roadhouse Loaded Double Down Deluxe Pizza is our favorite frozen pie here at Tasting Table, and it'd make a natural candidate for a blue cheese topping. On the flip side, we've also rounded up 17 frozen pizzas to avoid at all costs at the grocery store to help steer your pizza to success.

As you brainstorm pizza toppings, keep in mind that blue cheese has a wider range of customization when paired with white sauce rather than pizza's standard red marinara sauce. Don't get it twisted: Blue cheese and marinara sauce is still a knockout savory combo; it just limits foodies to the savory realm — and blue cheese can serve as the foundation for some impressive sweet-leaning artisanal pies, if that's your thing.

On the savory side, you could simply crumble blue cheese over a frozen pepperoni pizza for some elevated flair. A drizzle of hot honey would really drive the whole thing home; pair it with a glass of chilled, sediment-heavy, skin-contact natural wine to complete the meal. Got a buffalo chicken pizza waiting in the freezer? It's crying out for some blue cheese. Blue cheese, arugula, crumbled sausage, cremini mushrooms, and tarragon would make another savory knockout.

On the sweeter side, look for a frozen cheese pizza with white sauce rather than marinara. This one could be topped flatbread-style with gorgonzola, pear, honey, fresh sage leaves, and a drizzle of high-quality olive oil. Or, if you're feeling fancy (or hosting last-minute), you could top a frozen cheese pizza with blue cheese, fig, asiago, and speck for a dinner-party-worthy pie.