7 Mama Cozzi's Frozen Pizzas From Aldi, Ranked Worst To Best

Is there anything better than family pizza night? I'm not sure about you, but my family kept this tradition going while I was growing up, and now that I'm an adult, pizza still makes me feel nostalgic. The warm, gooey cheese and slightly sweet tomato sauce sitting on a starchy crust with your favorite toppings is mouth-watering to even think about. And, while ordering pizza may be a favorite option for many, it isn't always practical. For those nights when you can't order pizza but still want it, frozen pizzas have stepped in to fill the gap.

Mama Cozzi's pizzas at Aldi caught my eye a while back because the brand offers a diverse range of options at surprisingly low prices. Thankfully, I was given the opportunity to give these a test drive and report my findings back to you here so you know exactly which to grab from the freezer on your next Aldi shopping trip. Also, thankfully, I'm uniquely qualified for the job thanks to 15 years in the food industry, among other experiences. To make my judgments, I ranked the taste, texture, and smell of each pizza. You can find my full methodology at the end of the article. Ready to discover which Mama Cozzi's pizza came in first place? Let's get into it.

Mama Cozzi's Original Thin-Crust Sausage Pizza started off on a great note. It cost less than $5, which I think is a steal. Or, at least, it would have been, had the whole taste test gone well. But we'll get into that in a minute.

The smell of this pizza while cooking was pretty nice, albeit faint. You could catch hints of the savory sausage amongst the tomato and starchy aromas. It also cooked really nicely according to the instructions on the package, with the cheese melting well and the crust becoming nicely crisp without being challenging to bite into. My first bite started off well, too, with a satisfying crunching sound and a great initial flavor. The taste of the milky cheese, umami sausage, Italian spices, and starchy crust merged together beautifully. Unfortunately, as I chewed and swallowed this first bite, the problems started. A weird aftertaste that vaguely reminded me of what burning plastic smells like permeated my mouth and refused to go away, no matter how much water I drank. It even persisted after trying to cleanse my palate with Pepsi, which I thought might work because it has a strong taste of its own.

Despite wanting to love it and having initially high expectations, I won't be purchasing Mama Cozzi's Original Thin-Crust Sausage Pizza again. Unless you enjoy the taste of burning plastic, I recommend skipping this in favor of higher-ranking options.

Before the taste test began, I had an issue with Mama Cozzi's Cauliflower Thin-Crust Roasted Vegetable Pizza. Namely, that it wasn't gluten-free. While I realize most pizzas won't be gluten-free, all of the cauliflower-crust pizzas I've tried have been, and I feel like this could be misleading — potentially even causing someone to ingest gluten accidentally. Despite this initial issue, I did endeavor to give this pizza a fair shot based on what it is.

Aesthetically, this pizza is eye-catching, with lots of bright colors sprinkled atop the pale cheese. The smell was barely existent, but what small whiffs of scent I caught were predominantly earthy, like the vegetables. The crust tasted fine, with the exact texture I expected from a thin crust, and the pizza initially tasted okay. I thought the cheese was a little lacking compared to other Mama Cozzi's pizzas, and the vegetables ended up a little overwhelming among all the other flavors. But, then, after I'd chewed and swallowed my first bite, I was struck with a mild but distinctly unpleasant aftertaste as though I'd drunk water that had been used to boil plain, unseasoned cauliflower. Although mild, it was hard to get this unwanted flavor out of my mouth.

Between the cauliflower crust problem, the unbalanced flavor profile, and that awful lingering aftertaste, I can't recommend this pizza at all. In fact, I suggest avoiding it at all costs.

When I was first creating my list of pizzas to include in this ranking, this Mama Cozzi's Cheese Stuffed-Crust Three-Meat Pizza was the one I was most excited about. It features a crust stuffed with cheese and is piled with tomato sauce, sausage, pepperoni, and beef. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out nearly as good as I was hoping — which is probably evident based on how low it's ranked.

The taste test started well, as this pizza had a thick, mouth-watering aroma while cooking. It was deeply savory with only faint hints of starch and dairy. If it had tasted as good as it smelled (or looked), this could have easily been a top-ranking pizza. Unfortunately, the generous meat on top had a low-quality, mixed-meat flavor, which I'm not a fan of. Upon closer inspection of the box, I noticed that it said the sausage was made with pork and chicken, while the pepperoni was made with pork, chicken, and beef. This was unfortunate and ruined the dish for me, leaving it with a bologna-like taste. The cheese inside the crust, too, wasn't nearly as gooey or stretchy as I would have liked.

While I wish I could recommend this, I just can't. It's possible that a plain cheese version of Mama Cozzi's stuffed-crust pizza might be good, but this one isn't.

Here's the part in the ranking where we go from things I just can't recommend to items that are at least okay enough to eat again. To be perfectly honest, I didn't have high hopes for Mama Cozzi's Original Thin-Crust Cheese Pizza, for a few reasons. First, it's a very cheap pizza, and I know full well you often get what you pay for. But, second, it just didn't look all that appealing before it was cooked. That's not to mention my negative experience with the other budget pizza option. Still, I pushed on without bias and gave the pizza a fair shot. And, honestly, it's not that bad.

This review can be summarized by saying this was a decent budget pizza. It's not bad, but it's not earth-shattering, either. There was no real definitive smell while it was cooking, and it looked just like a plain cheese pizza with crispier edges and a softer, gooier center. The pizza crust tastes slightly more like a cracker than the softer crust of some other pizzas, but it isn't so hard that it's challenging to eat. Both the tomato sauce and cheese taste good, with the overall dish having a slightly sweet taste to it.

If you're looking for a budget pizza you can make in under 20 minutes, this is a perfectly acceptable option. But if you're looking for higher-quality pizza, choose a higher-ranked option.

I hadn't initially intended to grab either mini pizza option for my taste test because I hadn't seen them before. However, they caught my eye while I was at Aldi picking up the other frozen pizzas, and I just knew I had to try them. Not only did they look good, but I thought they could be an excellent snack option for adults or kids alike. I'm really glad I grabbed these because both this option and the Margherita-style one turned out to be hits with not just myself, but also my family.

These pizzas had a pleasant, light scent, combining mild milkiness with moderate starchy notes. While the smell wasn't awe-inspiring, the taste was pretty fantastic. I loved that the pizzas were small enough that I could pick a whole one up in my hand and eat it in two or three bites. The strong, earthy taste of the spinach was very much at the forefront, seasoned with what I believe to be a little bit of garlic (although I can't be positive). This paired nicely with the light milky taste of the mozzarella, the sweetness of the tomato sauce, and the robustly starchy profile of the breading.

I really enjoyed these spinach mini pizzas from Mama Cozzi's and will probably purchase them again in the future. The only reason these didn't rank higher is sheer personal preference.

This well-ranked pizza took me through a roller coaster of emotions, hopes, and thoughts. When I first saw this at my local Aldi, I thought it sounded uniquely delicious. After all, I'm a huge fan of both pizza and beef brisket, so this sounded perfect. Then, when I saw the frozen pizza, I felt a moment of significant trepidation. Among the chunks of beef were a lot of onions — to the point that I began thinking it should be called an onion pizza instead.

Despite my hesitations about the amount of onions, I placed the pizza in the oven to cook with every intention of fulfilling my taste test. I'm really glad I did because things took a turn for the better when this pizza filled my kitchen with a strong, mouth-watering smell like cheesy brisket. When it came out of the oven, I once again felt a little unsure of how this would go because the crust seemed to have cooked a bit more than I like. Seeing this, I was concerned that it might be challenging to chew. But, thankfully, it wasn't. Instead, it had a nice, soft but crispy crust, bursting with cheesy, meaty goodness, with only hints of onion and sweet peppers in the flavor.

I highly recommend trying this Mama Cozzi's Thin-Crust Pit-Smoked Beef Brisket Pizza. You'll especially enjoy it if you're a fan of cheddar cheese pizzas, brisket, or thin-crust varieties.

Often, I find that choosing the top option in these rankings is really hard, but that wasn't the case here because there were no doubts in my mind that Mama Cozzi's Italian-Style Margherita Mini Pizzas deserved the top spot. Even though I was full after finishing the serving of four mini pizzas, it was oh-so-tempting to go back for more. Of course, I did practice self-control and saved the other portions for later, but it was a challenge.

Like the other mini pizzas, these are perfectly sized to pick up with one hand and devour in two or three bites. To me, this makes them very convenient when you're craving pizza but don't have anyone to split a whole pie with. These specific Margherita mini pizzas have a very fresh, vibrant flavor profile with notable highlights of earthiness, sweetness, and starchiness. Unlike some of the other pizzas, the sweet tomato sauce here is prominent, while the crust, cheese, and fresh herbs offer nice counterpoints.

I have nothing negative to say about these Margherita mini pizzas from Mama Cozzi's. In fact, I may venture so far as to say these are the perfect representation of what I look for in a pizza — frozen, fresh, or otherwise. I highly recommend grabbing a box for yourself so you can see why it earned the top spot on our ranking of Aldi frozen pizzas.

I chose Mama Cozzi's frozen pizzas for inclusion in this ranking based on their availability to me at the Aldi location in Vineland, New Jersey. Of those frozen pizzas available to me, I aimed to choose a wide assortment to get the most comprehensive impression of the Mama Cozzi's brand as possible. Each pizza was judged based on its taste, texture, and smell — and each was eaten exactly as-is, without alterations, for the fairest possible assessment.

To make my judgments, I relied primarily on over 15 years of food industry experience, during which I cross-trained in hot foods and bakeries. This cross-training makes me uniquely suited to ranking pizza, as it draws on aspects from both backgrounds. Also contributing to my ability to make these decisions is a great love of pizza and previous work ranking or reviewing pizzas specifically for Daily Meal. For example, I previously explored which grocery store frozen pizzas you should leave in the freezer aisle and recommended options that you were better off getting. I was also one of the first people to review Domino's then-new stuffed-crust pizza. Although personal preference played a role in this ranking, I aimed to be as unbiased about product quality as possible.