I like to reheat pizza upside down (so the toppings get hot) in a cast iron pan.
...what does a pizza expert recommend? I chatted with Anthony Mangieri, a pioneer of Neapolitan-style pizza in the United States, about his reheating preferences. I was especially curious about his take as he is not just the owner of the famed New York pizzeria Una Pizza Napoletana, but is behind Simply Recipes' favorite frozen pizza brand Genio Della Pizza.
Adjust Your Expectations
First and foremost, Mangieri wants you to understand that you’ve already experienced your pizza at its peak. Reheating pizza to recreate the experience you had the day before is, in his opinion, a waste of time. Leftover pizza is a separate joy from the product you’re served at a restaurant. “You're getting two lives out of a pizza, two different experiences,” he explains.
Proper Pizza Storage
The best reheated pizza starts with storage. If you know the pizza is going to get eaten within a few hours, just leave it out at room temperature and eat it as-is. Mangieri enjoys how the crust becomes more bread-like, and the flavors are more intense when they’re not blazing hot from the oven. Reheating pizza that’s just a few hours old actually produces a worse product than eating it at room temperature.
If you need to refrigerate it, take the time to transfer it out of the box. Storing it in the box leaves it too susceptible to wonky moisture levels and refrigerator smells. Instead, wrap it in foil. You’ll preserve the flavors of your pizza and also save yourself a bunch of fridge space.
To bring refrigerator cold pizza back to life, heat your oven as high as it will go with the rack positioned in the center. Place your slices on a piece of foil. Bring the foil up and around the slices without fully closing it up. This helps protect the cheese from melting off of the pizza before it’s warmed through.
Halfway through, open up the top of the foil. Bake until it’s just warmed through—you aren’t going for a screaming hot slice.
Mangieri explains that most mozzarella does not respond well to being reheated so thoroughly. It breaks and becomes greasy, lacking the texture and pullback of freshly melted cheese.
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