The Case For Reheating Leftover Pizza On A Griddle

Leftover pizza is a fact of life.  For many of us, even a single pizza is a bit much, leaving us wondering the next day about the best way to reheat the leftovers. Sure, you can microwave them, but they might come out floppy. For a crisper crust, baking the pizza in the air fryer, toaster oven or standard oven should all work. Some people, however, opt to do their pizza reheating on the stovetop in a covered griddle or frying pan.

When you heat your pizza on the stove, you'll need to start with a cold griddle or pan and keep the temperature low. If your appliance has a temperature control like the Black+Decker Electric Skillet, set it for 200 degrees Fahrenheit. The reason for this is that bread (or pizza crust) heated to a temperature between 140 and 200 degrees Fahrenheit will reabsorb some of the water it lost when it started to stale, but that same water (which is trapped in the gluten) will evaporate if the temperature reaches the boiling point of 212 degrees Fahrenheit. Heating the slice low and slow also allows the cheese to re-melt and the toppings to soften without much risk of burning.

Even the covered griddle-slash-skillet method won't reconstitute your pizza back to its original glory, which is why we'd like to make the case for turning the leftovers into something else entirely. You could use it to make sandwiches, chop it into squares and dry it out to make croutons, or dip your pizza in batter and deep-fry it (because people cannot live on kale and broccoli alone). You could even turn it into a brunch dish by using it in french toast-style pizza breakfast casserole. (Beermosas would be the natural pairing here.)

Of course, the very best way to enjoy day-old pizza may be au naturel. Don't heat it up at all, just eat it at room temperature, if you're brave enough to keep it unrefrigerated overnight in defiance of USDA guidelines. (The agency recommends refrigerating all prepared foods within a two-hour window.) You can also eat pizza cold from the fridge, which is what I like to do. No, it's not the same thing as hot, fresh pizza, but I happen to enjoy the variant, and consider it to be one of my favorite breakfast foods.