Mama Cozzi’s Rising Crust Sloppy Joe Inspired Pizza

Sloppy joes were a staple family dinner when I was growing up. On a busy school night, it was easy to brown some frozen ground turkey in a skillet, add tomato sauce and seasonings, and serve it all up in hamburger buns. My mom always topped our sloppy joes with sliced cheese as well. These days, I don’t make sloppy joes often, but they sometimes still make it onto the menu.

Or, a sloppy joe-style pizza from Aldi recently made its way onto our dinner table. The discount grocer always seems to be up for offering novelty pizzas. Over the years, I’ve seen Aldi sell a limited-edition green bean casserole pizza, a mac and cheese pizza, a chickpea crust pizza, and a pulled pork mac and cheese flatbread pizza.

The package for the Aldi sloppy joe-inspired pizza states this is “topped with seasoned tomato sauce, low-moisture mozzarella and cheddar cheeses, beef topping, green peppers, onions & tomatoes.”

Mama Cozzi’s Rising Crust Sloppy Joe Inspired Pizza is an Aldi Find, so it’s only in stores for a limited time. Each store receives a single shipment, and after that sells out, it’s gone unless Aldi decides to bring it back later. Aldi doesn’t offer online ordering if this is sold out at your local store. This pizza was sold alongside a mac n’ meat pizza that is also an Aldi Find.

The sloppy joe pizza cost $4.99 for a 26.1-ounce pizza at the time of publication. That comes out to about 19 cents per ounce. The pizza has five servings, so that comes out to about $1 per serving.

If you’re looking out for allergens, this contains wheat, milk, and soy.

This pizza has a lot of calories, sodium, carbs, and fat, so it’s not something to eat all the time. One serving (1/5 of the pizza) has 320 calories, 7 grams of total fat (9% DV), 3 grams of saturated fat (15% DV), 860 mg of sodium (37% DV), 50 grams of total carbohydrates (18% DV), 2 grams of dietary fiber (7% DV), 6 grams of total sugars, 5 grams of added sugars (10% DV), and 13 grams of protein.

The package has directions for baking this in the oven. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Remove the pizza from all packaging. Place the frozen pizza directly on the center rack in the oven. (I placed my pizza on a special pizza pan.) Bake for 19-22 minutes until the cheese is melted and the edges are golden brown.

This was done after about 21 minutes in the oven. It features a rising crust similar to some Regular Buy cheese and pepperoni rising crust pizzas Aldi sells year round. I think Aldi rising crust is more flavorful than some of the store’s other pizza crusts (I’m looking at you, stuffed crust pizza), but it’s also not as good as a takeout pizza crust. It’s decent for grocery store frozen pizza crust, though.

In terms of toppings, this pizza is spot on with its sloppy joe vibes. The tomato sauce, ground beef, and diced veggies taste just like a sloppy joe sandwich. Some family members didn’t care for this pizza as much because of that, but if you like sloppy joes, this pizza is a good imitation.

I do wish this had more cheese. You can see from the photo of the cooked pizza that it skimps a bit in that department. The pizza doesn’t lack flavor from the rest of its ingredients, though. If I bought this again, I might sprinkle a little extra shredded cheese on top before baking.

The Verdict:

Mama Cozzi’s Rising Crust Sloppy Joe Inspired Pizza really tastes like a sloppy joe, and this flavor mashup works surprisingly well. We wish it had a little more cheese topping, but that’s easily fixed if you add some extra cheese before baking. If you’re a fan of sloppy joes, this pizza is worth trying.