The Sour Ingredient You Should Add To Frozen Pizza

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The sooner you start framing your frozen pizza as a blank canvas for customizing with your own culinary spin, the sooner you will ascend from the purgatory of bland, boring boxed 'za to something truly worthy of a scrumptious meal. From thawing your frozen pizza before putting it in the oven to upgrading frozen crust with a simple brush-on ingredient, there's a world of possibilities for making your frozen pie tastier and more refined. Take, for example, that bag of lemons you bought at the store. Little do you realize, but a squeeze of fresh lemon juice or a generous sprinkle of zested rind is all that's standing between you and an unexpected pop of citrus that will take your pizza to the next level.

Lemon works great with pizza because it adds freshness to your pie, which is a quality that is desperately lacking in most frozen foods. Paired with a couple handfuls of succulent greens, you can make that humdrum cheese frisbee taste like something from an artisanal pizzeria. It's a general foodie rule that an acid kick elevates most dishes, balancing sweet and bitter notes in your meal and adding that "missing" component that you sometimes sense in bland fare. A stainless steel lemon zester is a great tool to have in your kitchen arsenal, because it can also be used to finely grate some fresh parmesan cheese onto your pizza.

Atop the best frozen pizza brand, a little lemon will take you from merely satisfied to full-on Flavortown resident. And, while it may not be able to completely save some less-impressive budget brands, it will still be an improvement, especially when combined with other frozen pizza hacks like adding extra cheese or fresh herbs. "I use lemon zest all the time on [N]eapolitan pizza. Works really well with fried basil, garlic and chili," says one Redditor. Meanwhile, on TikTok, a thoughtful commenter questioned, "Why have I never thought of my two favorite things, lemon and pizza[?]" Registered dietician Sarah Harper of The Addy Bean also endorses this trick: "[t]ry a lemon zest and chili oil crisp drizzle for a surprising gourmet twist." Again, don't be afraid to combine frozen pizza upgrades: Lemon and butter-basted crust, lemon and extra pepperoni, or lemon and basil from your windowsill plant.

To keep your lemon zest pleasantly sour, use your citrus as a finishing ingredient after baking as a final touch. For a sweeter, less pungent flavor, try adding very thinly sliced lemon before baking. It's true that doctoring your frozen pizza requires a bit more attention to your food than simply flinging a pie on a baking rack, but your extra effort will pay dividends in the form of more flavorful, complex taste.