{"id":8737,"date":"2013-02-08T13:03:10","date_gmt":"2013-02-08T21:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/burgersdogspizza.com\/?p=8737"},"modified":"2013-02-08T13:03:10","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T21:03:10","slug":"connies-naturals-chicago-frozen-pizza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/?p=8737","title":{"rendered":"Connie’s “Naturals” – Another Chicago Frozen Pizza"},"content":{"rendered":"

Connie\u2019s \u201cNatural\u201d is another frozen pie spawned from a Chicago pizzeria.\u00a0\u00a0 Their hook is the product is \u201call natural\u201d, which isn\u2019t a selling point for me, personally, but it appears to make some people happy.<\/p>\n

In 1963, Jim Stolfe traded his 1962 Oldsmobile for a small pizza shop on Chicago\u2019s south side.\u00a0 Over the past 50 years, the family has grown that small pizzeria into a mini empire, comprised of restaurants, branded concepts, commercial food service, and frozen product for consumers.<\/p>\n

I reviewed some other Chicago frozen pies recently<\/a>, and today we\u2019ll see how Connie\u2019s stands up to the others.\u00a0 First off, it was on sale for $5, and at 23.3 ounces, that comes in at about 21 cents per ounce, and that\u2019s\u00a0 a pretty good deal in frozen pizza land.<\/p>\n

The ingredient list does, indeed, look all \u201cnatural.\u201d\u00a0 The crust is flour, water, oil, sugar, yeas, salt, milk, cornmeal, granulated garlic.\u00a0 That\u2019s the same ingredient list that I use to make crust from scratch at home.<\/p>\n

Mozzarella Cheese.\u00a0 Sauce is tomatoes, water, oil, salt seasoning, cheese.\u00a0 Sausage is pork, spices, water, salt, sugar, dried garlic, lemon juice, rosemary extract, and oil.\u00a0 You can get much more \u201cnatural\u201d than that!<\/p>\n

Directions are to bake at 400 for 16-18 minutes.\u00a0 Results are pictured below.\u00a0 It\u2019s a fairly crispy crust; the box\u2019s suggestion for a crispier crust, brush the bottom and sides of the crust with olive oil before baking.\u00a0 I did not try that method this time.\u00a0 The tomato sauce tastes like\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.tomatoes!\u00a0\u00a0 Cheese is good; it\u2019s shredded on the pie.\u00a0 The sausage didn\u2019t grab me.\u00a0 I\u2019d like larger chunks, more of them, with more flavor.\u00a0 I personally subscribe to the school of thought that Italian sausage needs fennel, and Connie\u2019s lacks it.\u00a0 Just a personal preference.<\/p>\n

Overall, it\u2019s a good pie.\u00a0 Would I buy it regularly ahead of the other Chicago frozens, Home Run or Reggios?\u00a0\u00a0 Don\u2019t think so, but I\u2019d buy it if it was at this same sale price again, and it\u2019d be my first choice if HRI or Reggios wasn\u2019t available.<\/p>\n

The pie I bought, thin crust sausage, is described here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re in the Chicago area, and want to visit a Connie\u2019s restaurant, here\u2019s a typical menu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Connie's<\/a>
Connie’s, Unbaked<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Connie's<\/a>
Baked at 400, 18 minutse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Connie\u2019s \u201cNatural\u201d is another frozen pie spawned from a Chicago pizzeria.\u00a0\u00a0 Their hook is the product is \u201call natural\u201d, which isn\u2019t a selling point for me, personally, but it appears to make some people happy. In 1963, Jim Stolfe traded his 1962 Oldsmobile for a small pizza shop on Chicago\u2019s south side.\u00a0 Over the past… Continue reading Connie’s “Naturals” – Another Chicago Frozen Pizza<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,34,22,26],"tags":[933,948,1500,1762],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8737"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8737\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}