7 Luxurious Ways To Doctor Up Trader Joe's Frozen Pizza Margherita

Of all the things you can purchase at Trader Joe's, there are few options better than its pre-made foods. While a bit on the pricier side, they offer high-quality ingredients and robust tastes in convenient packaging, earning the grocer royalty status in the frozen food market. But of all its offerings, there are few as delicious, and customizable, as the Pizza Margherita.

This meatless dish has a crust that is chewy but firm enough to support light toppings, made from soft wheat flour for better pliability when kneading the dough. Margherita pizza is best known for its simple tastes, relying on high-quality mozzarella, tomato sauce, and basil for most of its flavor profile. However, Trader Joe's also uses balsamic vinegar, dill, and black pepper to add a bit of an herbal bite, rounded out with a touch of onion and garlic to provide some hearty vegetable flavor.

While delicious on its own, there are tons of ways to elevate frozen pizza. While there's nothing wrong with adding some pickled banana peppers or sausage to your Pizza Margherita, they'll override its flavors, at which point you may be better off picking up a simple cheese pizza from a cheaper brand. To upgrade rather than transform your Pizza Margherita, focus more on herbs, oils, seasonings, and spices that can expand the dish's flavor profile.

While TJ's Pizza Margherita already has dried, minced herbs, there's nothing wrong with adding a few fresh sprigs to liven up its flavor. Dried herbs have a slightly different flavor than fresh, so adding both forms provides dual layers of flavor that won't override anything you already love about this dish.

Fresh basil leaves laid over a pizza hot out of the oven are always delicious, adding something bright with plenty of flavor. You can also pluck some oregano or thyme from its stems and sprinkle it over top if you want something a little earthier, or dill for something more unique. If you want just a touch of extra herbal taste, a sprinkle of minced parsley or fresh marjoram are great choices that work well with the tomato sauce and mozzarella present in the dish.

You'll want to wait to add these fresh herbs until the pizza is cooling. If you add them before cooking, they'll likely burn and lose much of their taste or, even worse, become bitter and add a gritty texture.

Since Pizza Margherita already has tons of fresh, simple flavor, vinegar is a great way to add a bit of complexity, especially fruit-derived varieties. While you should use them sparingly for fresh pizza, the acid from a bit of vinegar can really brighten up your dinner. 

You'll want to avoid anything too harsh, like distilled white vinegar, but just about anything else is potentially a great choice. Dark vinegars, like the balsamic or chinkiang variety, are powerful in small doses and add earthier tones that round out the Pizza Margherita deliciously. On the other side of the spectrum, fruity options like apple cider vinegar, champagne vinegar, or even peach vinegar are a great match for mozzarella and tomato, making them highly compatible with the frozen TJ's Pizza Margherita.

The biggest challenge when adding this acidic dressing is evenly sprinkling enough vinegar over your pizza to provide flavor but not so much it may make it soggy or overpowering. Try dipping a basting brush into a bowl of vinegar and flicking it over the pizza once it's cooked to spread tiny droplets over the whole thing. You can also fill a spray bottle with your vinegar of choice and give it a light misting. If you choose this method, be sure to spray high enough above the pizza to give the vinegar a chance to spread out and settle evenly.

Since Pizza Margherita isn't accompanied with any fatty meats, a bit of oil can provide some much-needed heartiness if you're looking for a more filling dinner. However, like vinegar, you should use them sparingly to avoid overwhelming the other ingredients. A quick drizzle over the pizza as it cools is all you need to add some extra flavor with whatever oil you choose.

For olive oil, always use extra virgin varieties. The real difference between extra virgin and refined oil is that extra virgin has more flavor particulates, though this comes at the cost of a lower smoke point. Chili oils are a great bet if you want a little extra heat. They're particularly good for drizzling over the crust, ensuring every bite has just as much flavor as the last. While not strictly an "oil," you're welcome to drizzle a bit of melted duck fat or beef tallow to provide the meatiness a Pizza Margherita lacks.

Since they'll be acting as a finishing ingredient, it's best to add a drizzle of oil while the pizza cools. However, you can add them beforehand and let them heat up and suffuse the dish with flavor. If you do this, avoid putting too much on the crust. The oil might soak in too much and render your crust soggy.

If you see a Pizza Margherita as more of a blank canvas than a simple yet flavorful meal, you can always spice it up a bit. Whether you want some extra heat from cayenne or headiness from fennel, it's hard to go wrong.

There's one uncommon spice that adds extra Italian flavor: ajwain seed. Resembling a cross between thyme, anise, and cumin, this seasoning is the perfect middle ground between herb and spice. Simple black pepper is another great choice for those looking for more flavor with just a touch of heat. Cayenne and paprika, when used sparingly, add a ton of taste but may clash with the herbs and tomato paste of your Pizza Margherita if used too much.

Most spices benefit from toasting in a pan before being added to pizza, especially if you add it to the finished product. If you include a dash or two while the pizza is still frozen, the spice may burn, especially if it comes in a powdered form. Instead of sprinkling it directly onto your dish, try flavoring an oil with your spice of choice and drizzle it on the pizza before or after it cooks. This helps ensure you get all the flavor with far less risk of burning.

Just about every pizza place in the world offers little packets or jars of crushed red pepper flakes, but the world of dried chiles goes so far beyond this one variety. This is an especially great ingredient to doctor up your Pizza Margherita because they come in a wide variety of flavors and heat levels.

If you like your pizza hot, dried scotch bonnets or classic cayenne are great condiments once it's done cooking. But if you want more flavor than heat, granulated green bell pepper holds onto its fresh vegetable taste remarkably well, whether it's been cooked first or used as a finishing ingredient. Urfa biber and ancho chile flakes are beloved all around the world for their smokiness, and when used in moderation, they blend with the tastes of herbs and mozzarella in some incredible ways.

The sheer variety of dried pepper flakes means it's always easy to find one that blends well with any other ingredients you might use to improve your Pizza Margherita. Since these are dried peppers, they're best added once the pizza is out of the oven. They don't have enough moisture to hold up to the dry heat of an oven, but, if used to flavor oil, they can still make for a great additional ingredient that flavors your food while it cooks. 

Sticky and oh-so delicious, a nice glaze is a fantastic way to add bursts of powerful taste and sweetness to your Pizza Margherita. While it may lean on added or natural sugar found in its ingredients, it can add the perfect contrasting flavor profile when used sparingly.

A classic balsamic glaze is the perfect pick for someone who wants both sweetness and acid on top of their pizza. With a full-bodied, slightly fruity flavor, it brightens up mozzarella quite well when used in moderation. Since it's already cooked, most glazes are best added once the pizza finishes cooking. However, with the right timing, you can use them to enhance your Pizza Margherita's crust as well. 

In this Food Republic writer's experience, a glaze is best added when your pizza has five minutes left in the oven. Provided you don't mind getting your hands a little dirty, this is a great way of making something truly unique that capitalizes on the flavors of your Pizza Margherita's soft flour crust.

While it may seem a bit redundant to put tomatoes on a red sauce pizza, it's similar to adding fresh versions of dried herbs that are already present. Fresh slices of tomato not only adds bright flavor to the pizza, but also a bit of acidity that's fantastic for people leery about adding vinegar. Baked tomatoes, however, add plenty of savory sweetness that pairs beautifully with herbs and mozzarella. Your preferred flavor will determine whether you add the tomatoes before or after baking your Pizza Margherita.

What kind of tomato you should add also boils down to your preferences. Purple tomatoes have deep savoriness so, when sliced thick, they're a great way to add some substantial heartiness to an otherwise light Pizza Margherita. Cherry tomatoes are plenty sweet, but yellow tomatoes may be better if you're looking for something with a bit more fruity flavor. Of course, there's nothing wrong with a classic red tomato, adding familiar flavors from the red sauce while still making your dinner more vibrant overall.

Whatever tomato you choose, be sure to slice them thinly. When raw, huge chunks of tomato override the soft, delicious flavors of your Pizza Margherita. If you want them to bake with your pizza, they need to be thin enough to allow their sugars to roast, excess liquid to evaporate, and skins to soften up to avoid being too chewy.