Trader Joe's Focaccia Primavera

As far as I can tell, this is a new product. Why a "primavera" product premiered during late summer? I don't know. Maybe because it has cauliflower, and 2020 has not subdued our collective real or imagined enthusiasm for all things cauliflower. Oh and also things that appear healthy. Because appearing healthy is very very important - whether or not we actually are is something else entirely. 

I did not buy an ugly looking box on purpose - it accidentally got smushed in my trunk. Better a cardboard box than a loaf of bread I suppose. Anyway, I picked this up because I thought the product description was interesting. In an age where travel, especially traveling abroad, is basically improbable for most people, I like eating food that helps me to mentally get away. Oh how nice it would be to be in [COVID-free] Italy! 

Y'all. I know TJ's has this perception of being a "healthy store." And yes, there are a lot of healthy things you can get at TJ's. But just cuz it's at TJ's DOES NOT mean that it's healthy! Like..y'all. We know your risk of COVID-spreading and COVID-exposure is LOWER outdoors, BUT THE RISK IS NOT ZERO. Like...some people not wearing masks in a crowd of people outside - oh cuz outdoors means you're safe. Uh. That's not how that works. TLDR - read the label. And this label uses pretty decent ingredients - everything is pronounceable. But HELLO the whole pie contains more than one day's worth of sodium. It's made in Italy, yay, but is it healthy? Definitely no if you're hypertensive. 

I heated this from frozen per conventional oven directions. It's not a huge pie. The diameter is about the length of one of my medium-sized cutting boards. 

 1) Let us acknowledge that the seeds on top of this pie are purely for aesthetics. The flax, sesame, and sunflower seeds just don't stay on when you're actually trying to eat this. Yes, they make the pie sort of more attractive, but I'm not buying this gimmick. Maybe seeds help promote the perception that this is healthy. 

2) The actual filling is much tastier than I thought it would be. Salt definitely helps. If it were less salty, it probably wouldn't be as tasty. I don't think it's oversalted - I think as is, it's seasoned just right. It doesn't have too much of a "cauliflower taste." Really, the flavor comes from the fat and cheeses (ricotta, grana padano, and mozzerella). And yes, there's spinach and cauliflower and egg whites definitely healthifies it. Y'all know that parents try to hide veggies into mac and cheese for their kids because smothering stuff in cheese increases the likelihood that more people will eat otherwise less desirable foods. Is there a vegetable that doesn't taste better with cheese? Y'all tell me. 

3) My main beef is with the crust - the flavor, the construction, and the improper product labeling. I'm not sure why they called this a "focaccia" - there is nothing focaccia about this crust. It's a gimmick of a name. It's hard to know without a reference of the actual Italian dish that inspired this product. But my understanding of focaccia is that it's a flat-baked bread that's similar to pizza crust. And even when the focaccia is plain-flavored, it still has flavor! This crust has very little flavor. I guess it's really only a functional vehicle for holding the filling. Furthermore, at its current thickness, you can't call this product a pie. A pie has a crust. The only thing pie-like about this product is the shape and the fact that the filling is enveloped. This is not a crust. It's more like a flat sheet. It does the job of holding it together but not much in terms of taste or texture.

3b) The filling would be better suited with a thicker crust, like with an actual pie crust like a quiche or a pizza dough, which would make this more of a calzone. Call me American but I wouldn't be mad about having this filling in a calzone. And yes, the calorie count would definitely go up, but y'all...healthy food is always cutting corners somewhere just sayin. 

3c) Even those flatbread pizzas that you get at casual restaurants as "small bites" have some kind of texture and taste. 

4) Baking it a little longer does help "crisp" the crust - if you don't bake it long enough, the crust stays a bit soft and bendy and the filling just spills out. Like certain pizza crusts, which again would not be a problem if this were constructed like a calzone. 

5) The filling is good enough where I can see how this product would make a fairly good appetizer. But the crust is bad enough where it will keep me personally from repurchasing. I just think when you call it a pie or a focaccia...there ought to be standards. 

6) $3.99 for this 14.1 ounce pie. 

TL;DR: Trader Joe's Focaccia Primavera. It's not a pie. It's not a focaccia. But the filling sure tastes great. 3 points off for execution. 7 out of 10.