Projo Football Food and Spirits

A market research firm - NPD Group- tallied how many times a year Americans around the country eat frozen pizza.

Midwesterners do it 22 times a year. That’s almost twice a month for those living in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and North and South Dakota.

What are they thinking?

Apparently they don’t have enough great pizzerias to visit so they are stuck eating something that tastes like cardboard.

New Englanders, I’m proud to say, are at the bottom of the frozen-pizza-eater list,only having it an average of 6 times a year.

We do not have to buy frozen with all the great pizza makers we have here.

If you are craving a pizza for when the Patriots head to Giants Stadium to play the Jets on Sunday, here are three great spots to try.

On Plainfield Pike you’ll find Neo Pizza, 2244 Plainfield Pike, Cranston, (401) 942-4636, and try the Gian. It’s made with a signature thin crispy crust, a blend of three cheeses - mozzarella, Cheddar and Parmesan - pancetta, spinach, olive oil and fresh garlic. The bacony fragrance is delicate and spicy, and so beautifully balanced by the scent of the garlic and other herbs.

Pancetta is an Italian bacon cured with salt and spices, but not smoked, so it lends a ton of flavor without overwhelming everything else. The three-cheese blend is mild, which works nicely. The spinach adds a pleasant texture. The garlic and oil provide a light base for all this goodness.

Journal photo / Gretchen Ertl

For simpler tastes, there’s the classic Margherita with a thin, crispy crust puffed golden at the edges. A perfect amount of cheese, cooked just to the point of melting, is spread end to end. A bright red sauce layered in proper proportion with cheese is topped with a sprinkling of fresh, fragrant basil.

The Big Cheese & Pub, 606 Reservoir Ave., Cranston, (401) 467-8210, www.menusmenusmenus.com, is an institution which makes its own dough daily, including whole wheat.

The choices include gourmet pizzas and the original.

I favor an Original Pizza with pepperoni. It has just-enough sauce, the mild and creamy Cheddar blend of cheese, the spicy pepperoni and the crisp crust. The large pie is sliced to create four triangle corners with lots of dough, the wedge pieces we fight over in our house.

But the Mediterranean gourmet pizza is mighty fine too. It’s a Greek topping pizza with chopped tomato, spinach, feta, Cheddar and sauce. The crust is thinner on that pizza and the vegetables dominate for a healthy alternative.

On Federal Hill in Providence, you’ll find something totally different at Bob n Timmy’s Grille, 32 Spruce St., Providence, 453-2221. Their wood-grilled pizzas as thin as sin and the cheese blends, including gorgonzola, are amazing.

Clams, veggies, arugula, chicken – take your pick. It’s all good.

These are gourmet pizzas to-go.

Curious about where the rest of the nation falls in the frozen pizza consumption survey, here are the rest of the numbers: East North Central (Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio) — 16 times; South Atlantic (Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Delaware, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida) — 15 times; Mountain (Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico) — 13 times; Pacific (Washington, Oregon and California) — 12 times; East South Central (Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama) — 11 times; West South Central (Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana) — 10 times and North Atlantic (New York, Pennsylvania and N.J.) — 8 times.

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