Papa Murphy’s testing pizza flavors in BR

Papa Murphy’s, the nation’s largest take-n-bake pizza chain, announced Tuesday it will use the Baton Rouge area to test three new pizzas featuring toppings such as fennel, a naturally sweet-tasting herb, and goat cheese.

The new pizzas are part of the chain’s effort to tap growing demand for the products.

The three pizzas are:

• Goat cheese and fennel sausage: garlic sauce, pepperoni, spinach, fennel sausage, mushrooms, goat cheese.
• Fennel sausage and sun-dried tomato: red sauce, pepperoni, fennel sausage, sun-dried tomatoes, green onions, black olives, feta cheese.
• Prosciutto and arugula: red sauce, prosciutto (dried and smoked ham), mozzarella, arugula, a leafy green plant with a spicy flavor.

According to restaurant market research firm Datassential, the ingredients in the new pizzas are increasingly used in U.S. restaurants. Since 2008, menus listing arugula salad are up 43 percent; fennel, 30 percent; and goat cheese, 21 percent.