Beginning in Italy around 1850, the Pastorelli family took a deliberate route into the Italian food products business, making olive oil, and eventually tomato sauce of some repute.
Several companies were successfully built and sold, on both sides of the Atlantic, until the birth of the Chicago company, producing red sauce, olive oil, and now, thin crust pizza shells to bake at home.
In a variety of sizes, topping out at a 16 oz pack, and vacuum-packed 3 to a package, the ultra thin crusts are perfect for topping with Pastorelli or your favorite sauce, some cheese and toppings of your choice. A quick 6-8 minutes in the oven and they are complete.
I found them at Cost Plus World Market (locator) at 3 – 7″ crusts for five bucks, but they are also available online, in white or wheat. They’re shelf stable; no refrigeration is required until opening.
The crusts are an “OK” product, I don’t think I will be a frequent purchaser, but I will reserve that decision until after trying them a few more times.
In this first outing, the crusts didn’t separate easily from each other, despite having paper dividers. You can see the result in pic to the left. Even though the product does not call for refrigeration until after the package is open, I think refrigerated crusts might separate easier, and I will try that.
They do cook quickly, and can crisp up nicely, but even fully baked (to me) they have a kind of “doughy” taste. I believe I will also try a lower oven temp/longer time, as I think I might have better, more even results with the baking.
But overall, I liked it. It’s a creative, convenient product, and I much prefer it to something like Boboli, which is just too much bread for my pizzas.
This would be really great for a kid’s party, slap a crust in front of each child at a table, let them build their own pies with their favorite toppings.
home pizza recipe