The Hands Down Best Way to Store and Reheat Leftover Pizza
By some miracle, you ended up with more pizza than you could eat—or you intentionally ordered a larger pie just to have leftovers. Don’t let your leftovers sit in the fridge until they dry out, curl up, and turn downright disgusting. Instead, follow these simple tips to store and step-by-step directions to reheat leftover pizza to make sure it’s just as cheese-melty and delicious the second time around.
Store leftover pizza
The best way to store leftover pizza is NOT to leave it in the box and shove the whole thing in the refrigerator. The cardboard and air freely circulating around the slices will dehydrate pizza in a big hurry.
Stack and wrap
Place a single layer of slices on a dinner plate and top with a layer of wax, freezer, foil, or parchment paper. Keep stacking, alternating pizza and paper until all the slices are on the plate. Wrap the whole thing tightly in plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator. That’s it!
It’s not as easy as just throwing the box in the fridge, but you’ll end up with tastier leftover pizza to reheat. Properly stored, leftover pizza will retain its best quality for 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator or up to 2 months in the freezer.
Reheat leftover pizza
While we have options for how to reheat leftover pizza, I find the oven is too involved for a couple of slices of pizza. The microwave produces a soggy, rubbery mess. I’ve settled on the hands-down best way to heat up one or a couple of slices is in a skillet—ideally, my well-seasoned cast-iron skillet, although any non-stick skillet with a lid will do just fine.
Patience
This is not difficult as long as you know upfront that your most important ingredient here is patience. Just follow these steps precisely, and I promise you a crisp bottom crust, hot, melted cheese, and no sign whatsoever that it was made the day before.
Step 1
Place one or two slices cold pizza in the cold, dry skillet, crust side down.
Step 2
Place a lid on the skillet.
Step 3
Set the skillet on a stovetop burner and set it to low. (Err on the side of setting it too low as you figure out your stove’s temperament).
Step 4
Set a timer for 8 minutes.
Step 5
Wait. Do not peek or remove that lid for any reason. Just don’t.
That’s it! No need to add water or oil or flip the slices or any other thing you may be wondering about. It’s all about keeping the temperature Low and not removing the lid for any reason until it’s done.
If eight minutes is too long for your stove’s heat set on Low, wait 5 minutes instead of 8, then check. It’s not long enough? Continue on Low for a few more minutes. It won’t take long for you to learn the perfect amount of time for your stove.
NOTE: Because there are several variables here—the type of skillet and your burner’s temperature when set to Low—you may need to adjust these instructions as needed.
Reheat frozen pizza
For frozen leftover pizza, let it thaw on the countertop for at least an hour, and then follow the instructions above.
Reheating leftover pizza properly is all about starting out cold, keeping the temperature at Low to Medium (see above) and not removing the lid for any reason until it’s done.
Enjoy!
Let’s face it, every now and then you need to have a quick pizza lunch or dinner in the freezer like Newman’s or diGiorno. Or at least I do. But we have found that the pizza always seems to come out dry and over cooked on the bottom making it almost inedible. I read your Domino’s pizza bakeoff and thought that using the oil on the pan and cornmeal method of baking might solve this problem. What do you think?
Great tips. Another idea, which I read about in Molly Yeh’s cookbook “Home is Where the Eggs Are”: cut the warmed pizza into small squares and add them to your salad (greens tossed with a vinaigrette dressing & some chickpeas) – you’ve essentially got pizza croutons 🙂
Oh, I do enjoy her show on Food Network. What a great idea!
Luckily for me, both my husband and I love it cold out of the fridge the next day – sometimes almost breaking a tooth!!
Been reheating in the skillet,with lid,since Mary
shared this tip!
I love adding a little olive oil to the cold pan and than adding the cold pizza. Even better than the original!
I like that, Sally! Nice tip
Re Leftover Pizza-
Please don’t forget that in the morning, leftover pizza, like revenge is best served cold. (More accurately, room temperature.)
Now that sounds like a great Tip of the Day … ? 🙂
We reheat pizza on the gas grill. Delicious!