Meatza Pizza Burgers - Rachael Ray's 30-Minute Meals

My family likes burgers and Rachael Ray has called herself the queen of burgers, so of course, we had to try a burger recipe from her book. It's always fun to try something a little bit different too and this burger was definitely different. It included chopped up pepperonis and tomato paste in the ground meat among other ingredients. Now, in general, I am not a big fan of pepperoni pizza, I would prefer sausage and mushroom if I'm given the choice. If the boys are picking, and especially the young boys, they will pick pepperoni pizza every time. I thought these burgers would be a big hit.

I prepared them a little bit differently than the recipe. We have our ground meat frozen in 1 1/2 pound amounts, so I used 1 1/2 pounds of ground turkey to make these burgers instead of ground beef. Then I used the amounts of the other ingredients as indicated in the recipe. I could really smell the tomato paste as I was working all the ingredients into the ground turkey. I was very curious to see how much the flavors of the ingredients added to the meat would come through when it was cooked.

When the boys asked what was for supper and I told them we were having pizza hamburgers with pepperoni inside they were very excited. The boys all like cheese, but unless it is on a grilled cheese sandwich or a pizza they prefer the cheese to be separate from their other food. I offered them the recommended cheese for this burger, but two of the three declined. Only Mr. T said he wanted cheese on top of his, so I obliged and melted cheese onto the youngest's burger.When they were served he complained about the cheese and would not eat the meat until after he had scraped all the cheese off and eaten it separately.

Hubby and I opted for cheese on our burgers and we left it there. We all enjoyed these burgers and the flavors of the pizza really came through. There was a tomato flavor from the tomato paste as well as the tomatoes on top. The pepperoni flavor really came through and even gave the burgers a bit of a kick that was very nice. It was easy to tell that these burgers were meant to give the flavor of pizza and they delivered.

Timing: Recipe States: 30 minutes, My Actual Timing: 35 minutes
Servings: Recipe States: 4 servings, Servings For My Family: 6 servings
Leftovers: The leftovers were good, but not quite as good as a fresh burger.


Family Ratings:
Me: I thought they were very good, and while I was a little skeptical that the flavor would come through, it really did taste like pizza. Also, I enjoyed the spicy kick from the pepperoni even though they are not a pizza topping I prefer.
Hubby: He enjoyed these burgers as well. They were fun for something different. He said he will not request them specifically in the future, but would not be upset to see them again either.
Big Man: Big Man definitely noticed the spice and commented on it a couple of times, but seemed to enjoy his burger.
Bear: Bear really liked that these tasted like pizza and that there was pepperoni. He said we should absolutely have these again.
Mr. T: He was not happy about the cheese melted over his burger, even though it was requested. Once the cheese was scraped off he had no problem with the rest of his burger.

Will I repeat: I probably will serve these again when it gets nicer out and we eat more burgers. It's a nice change when we eat them frequently in the summer.

What will I change: I wouldn't change anything except what was mentioned above.