Raley’s Whole-Wheat Pesto Cheese Artichoke Bacon Pizza

Local NorCal grocery store chain Raley’s/Bel Air/Nob Hill recently introduced their own line of take and bake pizzas, with a twist. Top It! Top-N-Bake pizzas feature three choices of crust/sauce/cheese combinations and five different choices of pre-packaged toppings. Read more about the options on the Raley’s website.

I picked up one of these babies when a girlfriend was coming over for dinner the other night. I opted for the Whole-wheat Pesto & Three Cheese base, plus the Artichoke Bacon topping. At $8 for a 12 inch pizza and toppings, the price was right!

At home, I unwrapped the pizza “base” and examined the toppings. Bacon, √; artichoke, √; Chicken, Spinach & Tomato? Bonus! Good thing my guest and I like all those toppings. In all fairness, these ingredients are listed on the packaging, so be sure to check out your options at point of purchase.

Anyway, some of the chicken chunks were pretty large and there were just three artichoke hearts, so I cut these into smaller pieces and sprinkled them around the pizza along with the spinach, bacon and tomato.

Being that my salary is provided by dairy farmers and milk processors, I went ahead and added some extra cheese, then popped this baby in the oven. Quick note…this is a thin crust pizza and the crust sits on a cardboard round. The packaging directions don’t specify it, but common sense (I sincerely hope) would dictate that you remove the pizza from the cardboard base before placing in the oven. I found the pizza slid right off the cardboard onto the middle rack of my oven with no problems.

Golden, bubbly & delicious

After about 10 minutes, I turned off the oven and let the pizza sit for just a few more minutes. When at last we dug into this pizza, we were impressed with the great flavors and the crispy crust.

I haven’t met very many pizzas I have not liked, but the Raley’s Top-N-Bake pizza is one of the best bake-at-home versions I’ve ever tried. While the nutrition facts panel advised that one pizza was three servings, my friend and I only put one piece back in the fridge for the next day (reheats well, BTW.) So we’ll work on our portion control for next time….

So if you’re in NorCal, check out these Top-N-Bake offerings from Raley’s for an inexpensive, quick and personalized dinner solution.