The Trader Joe's Cheese Designed To Upgrade Your Pizzas

When learning to make your own homemade pizza, figuring out the best methods for baking and what it takes to make the perfect crust often take precedence. Choosing the right cheese may seem secondary, but that little tidbit is equally as important. It heavily determines the flavor of your pie, so it's best to choose wisely. If you don't know what to pick, Trader Joe's shredded pizza seasoned Toscano cheese takes out all the guesswork.

Building flavor properly is a key tip for making the best homemade pizza. Since you don't want to overload the pie with a myriad of toppings, you'll have to make sure all your bases from the crust to the cheese are on point. Trader Joe's shredded Toscano cheese features a blend of dehydrated onion and garlic, oregano, parsley, sea salt, crushed red pepper, and extra virgin olive oil — essentially all the ingredients you'd use to punch up your pizza. Instead of stirring seasonings into the sauce or struggling to sprinkle them evenly across the surface of the pizza, the cheese contains an expert blend that will be evenly distributed and baked right into the pie.

The cheese itself has a smooth, creaminess to it, finishing off with a nutty and smoky flavor. It's delicious with a spread of classic marinara sauce and savory pepperoni, but thanks to the spices it's packed with, you can use it on a plain pie with nothing more than a creamy white pizza sauce.

The best part about any grilled veggie pizza is the wealth of fresh ingredients slightly elevated with a few adjustments. Mushrooms, red onions, zucchini, and artichoke hearts are tossed with olive oil and herbs de Provence before being grilled to slightly deepen their flavor. The enhanced, earthy vegetables make a complementary pairing with seasoned Toscano cheese. The simple blend of ingredients in the Trader Joe's product boosts its umami flavor, giving the buttery cheese even more bite.

The herbaceous blend of spices in the shredded cheese is great for French bread white pizza, as well. The Toscano cheese melts cohesively into the creamy white sauce, although you can always ditch the sauce itself and just use the shredded cheese since it's packed with flavor. The dehydrated onions in the cheese amp up the flavor of the thinly sliced red onions while the crushed chili flakes add a bit of heat to the peppery arugula.

When making extra cheesy spinach artichoke pizza, you can never have too much cheese, and the shredded Toscano will work well here too. The pie features pine nuts that complement the nutty cheese, as well as mild, earthy artichoke hearts that get a flavor boost from the herbs.