Not so much a recipe, as a rescue… Today’s in-the-kitchen tip addresses the ages-old problem of reheating leftover pizza. Someone has finally developed a method that ensures re-heated pizza comes out crispy on the bot-tom, and cheesy on the top…
Best pizza re-heating method for a crispy crust actually involves adding moisture…
Thekitchn.com has come up with what may be the ultimate method for reheating leftover pizza – without the drawbacks of more-conventional techniques…
Nobody’s perfect
And that goes double for the ‘traditional’ techniques folks resort to, to reheat last night’s pizza for breakfast or lunch the next day.
A conventional oven usually makes the crust tough and leaves the toppings under-done. No lovely, gooey cheese-pull. The microwave produces a floppy, bready, often soggy crust, and may also give you a weepy top with runny, messy cheese. Ditto most air fryers.
TheKitchn’s reviewers also tried reheating a slice on a gas grill. Not the most convenient or efficient method – especially if you live where I do, in the Great White North, where reheating pizza on the grill in three of the four seasons would be a logistical nightmare. In any event… The reviewers found the grill produced the same tough crust and under-done top as the conventional oven.
The winner is…
… A skillet-based method that – counterintuitively – employs added moisture. It’s a combination of TheKitchn’s own technique and a hack from Food52.
“Their instructions also have you throw a slice in a skillet on medium-low, but you leave the pan un-covered, and wait until the crust begins to crisp (looking for the telltale glistening of grease as the cheese just starts to melt),” post author reveals.
“Then you add a few drops of water to the pan, away from the pizza, turn the heat to low, and cover with a lid for one minute, so that the cheese is steam-melted.”
Non-starters…
DO NOT attempt to reheat pizza in the toaster, the Panini press, the waffle iron – or any appliance that’s purpose-made for some other application. It’s a disaster in the making.
In Hamlet, Polonius tells his son, “Never a borrower or a lender be…” To paraphrase the other side of that coin, “Slice oft loseth self and appliance…”
My take
I get it. And the ‘science’ behind the technique strikes me as sound. I’m anxious – and curious – to try it next time I’m reheating pizza. But it’s a blast, just to get news that holds hope for successfully re-suscitating day-old pie! I’ve been lamenting the loss of that ‘fresh’ pizza experience in next-morning pie for decades…
~ Maggie J.