Pizza rolls are a
frozen food
Freezing food Food preservation, preserves it from the time it is prepared to the time it is eaten. Since early times, farmers, fishermen, and trappers have preserved grains and produce in unheated buildings during the winter season. Freezing foo ...
product consisting of bite-sized breaded pizza pockets with an interior of
tomato sauce
Tomato sauce (; ; ) can refer to many different sauces made primarily from tomatoes. In some countries the term refers to a sauce to be served as part of a dish, in others it is a condiment.
Tomatoes have a rich flavor, high water content, s ...
,
imitation cheese, and various pizza toppings. They are sold in a variety of flavors including cheese,
pepperoni
Pepperoni is an American variety of spicy salami made from cured pork and beef seasoned with paprika and chili peppers.
Before cooking, pepperoni is characteristically soft, slightly smoky, and bright red. Sliced pepperoni is one of the ...
, sausage, supreme, multiple imitation cheeses, and mixed meats. Other flavors included hamburger, cheeseburger, ham and cheese, and combination (pepperoni and sausage). Pizza snack rolls are designed to be quickly cooked in the oven or microwave. The name "pizza rolls" is a trademark of
General Mills
General Mills, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded ultra-processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in ...
, current owner of the original product, currently sold under the
Totino's brand.
Similar products are made by other brands and
private label
A private label, also called a private brand or private-label brand, is a brand owned by a company, offered by that company alongside and competing with brands from other businesses. A private-label brand is almost always offered exclusively by th ...
s. Since the original name is trademark protected, different names are used such as pizza bites, pizza snacks, or pizza poppers.
History
Pizza rolls were created in the mid-1960s in
Duluth, Minnesota
Duluth ( ) is a Port, port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of St. Louis County, Minnesota, St. Louis County. Located on Lake Superior in Minnesota's Arrowhead Region, the city is a hub for cargo shipping. The population ...
, United States, by product developer and cook
Beatrice Ojakangas.
She worked for food industry entrepreneur
Jeno Paulucci, who specialized in canned and frozen
Chinese food under the
Chun King brand and was looking for new uses for his
egg roll
The egg roll is a variety of deep-fried appetizer served in American Chinese restaurants. It is a cylindrical, savory roll with shredded cabbage, chopped meat, or other fillings inside a thickly wrapped wheat flour skin, which is fried in ...
wrapping machine.
According to Ojakangas, she started with over 50 filling ideas, including a number of sandwich flavors such as
peanut butter and jelly. Several of her pizza-flavored concepts performed well on
taste tests.
Paulucci stated, "pizza rolls are nothing but egg rolls with pizza crust and filling."
For the commercial production, Paulucci adopted a co-extrusion process using a
Demaco extruder. Jeno's, Paulucci's
frozen pizza brand, began using the Pizza Rolls trademark in 1967.
In 1985, Paulucci sold Jeno's to
Pillsbury, which owned
Totino's pizza. Jeno's Pizza Rolls were rebranded as Totino's Pizza Rolls in 1993. Pillsbury was sold to General Mills in 2001. After a series of commercial spoofs on ''
Saturday Night Live
''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...
'', Totino's pizza rolls saw a boost in popularity and sales in 2016.
See also
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Calzone
Calzone is an Italian oven-baked folded pizza. A typical calzone is made from salted bread dough, baked in an oven and stuffed with prosciutto or salami, mozzarella or ricotta, and Parmesan or pecorino, as well as an egg. Different regio ...
*
Pizza bagel
A pizza bagel is a bagel with pizza toppings.
History
Anthony DeMauro invented the pizza bagel in 1957 at Amster's Bagel Bakery (now closed) in South Euclid, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. It was not until May 26, 1970, when Amster Pizza Bagel, ...
*
Pocket sandwich
*
Samosa
A samosa () () (Hindi: समोसा) ( Persian: سمبوسه) is a fried South Asian and West Asian snack. It is a pastry with a savory filling that mostly consists of vegetables like spiced potatoes, onions, and peas, but can also include ...
*
Stromboli
Stromboli ( , ; ) is an island in the Tyrrhenian Sea, off the north coast of Sicily, containing Mount Stromboli, one of the four active volcanoes in Italy. It is one of the seven Aeolian Islands, a volcanic arc north of Sicily, and the mytho ...
*
List of stuffed dishes
This is a list of stuffed dishes, comprising dishes and foods that are prepared with various fillings and stuffings. Some dishes are not actually stuffed; the added ingredients are simply spread atop the base food, as one cannot truly stuff an oys ...
References
External links
Totino's products
General Mills brands
Pizza in the United States
Products introduced in 1967
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