Reheating pizza.

Today, I learned the absolute best way to reheat pizza and cheese stix. Wes from IMPELLIZZERI'S told me how. Get your fave cast iron skillet and toss in some olive oil. Heat it and put in your goodies. Cover with some foil (like a tent) and fire away. Now you have created a mini pizza oven. I tried it out tonight with 100% success. Thanks Wes. No wonder I have been an IMPELLIZZERI'S customer since 1979.

Today, I learned the absolute best way to reheat pizza and cheese stix. Wes from IMPELLIZZERI'S told me how. Get your fave cast iron skillet and toss in some olive oil. Heat it and put in your goodies. Cover with some foil (like a tent) and fire away. Now you have created a mini pizza oven. I tried it out tonight with 100% success. Thanks Wes. No wonder I have been an IMPELLIZZERI'S customer since 1979.

Very Nice! Gonna try that one next time...

Do you cook on the stove, or transfer to the oven?

Do you cook on the stove, or transfer to the oven?

Straight on top of the stove. It works like a charm.

Interesting, I'll definitely have to give that a shot.

Medium heat? Seems like it would just burn the bottom...

Interesting, I'll definitely have to give that a shot.

Medium heat? Seems like it would just burn the bottom...

Make sure to put the foil loosely on top to form kind of a small oven. Just enough to keep the heat in but let some of the moisture out. I learned this from Wes at the offline we had at Impellizzeri's. I promise it works like a charm. I've never liked reheating pizza in the nuker because it invariably came out rubbery and the regular oven seemed to dry it out too much. This method is definitely the way to go. Good luck.

I ordered a Mama Bearno's Special tonight and it is doing GREAT this way. Thanks again Wes. The crust gets crisp but the rest of the pie maintains it's integrity. Bearno's and Impelizzeris' RULE. My top 2 pies in the Ville.

Tried this a couple of days ago, and though I scorched the bottom of the pizza (wasn't sure how hot the pan should be, and I'm thinkin it was just way too hot), it's really a great method. Thanks for the tip.

We have a pizza stone thingie--I just put that in the oven while it heats up, put the slices on there, and it works really well.

[Robin Garr]

We have a pizza stone thingie--I just put that in the oven while it heats up, put the slices on there, and it works really well.

I've got to be honest ... with all respect to Wes, who knows his pie, a good-quality toaster oven does a perfect job of reconstituting pizza for me. Place them directly on the rack, no pan or base, and it's just a matter of setting the temp high (450-500F) and watching the slices carefully to pull them when they're ready.

We have a pizza stone thingie--I just put that in the oven while it heats up, put the slices on there, and it works really well.

I've got to be honest ... with all respect to Wes, who knows his pie, a good-quality toaster oven does a perfect job of reconstituting pizza for me. Place them directly on the rack, no pan or base, and it's just a matter of setting the temp high (450-500F) and watching the slices carefully to pull them when they're ready.

The toaster oven sounds like a good idea. If you have one. I suppose that might be the most compelling reason to get one (I've never had a toaster oven). I do have a bread stone (like a pizza stone only square) in my oven, but since it takes longer to heat through than a cast iron pan does, I'm thinking the cast iron pan is the most viable option for me. A grill would work too I reckon.

[Robin Garr]

The toaster oven sounds like a good idea. If you have one. I suppose that might be the most compelling reason to get one (I've never had a toaster oven). I do have a bread stone (like a pizza stone only square) in my oven, but since it takes longer to heat through than a cast iron pan does, I'm thinking the cast iron pan is the most viable option for me. A grill would work too I reckon.

I never thought about a toaster oven ... they always seemed like "non-gourmet" appliances and thus beneath my foodie dignity. When we moved to NYC in 1990, though, knowing we'd be in small apartments for a while, we got rid of a lot of stuff and got small but high-quality microwave (Panasonic) and toaster oven (DeLonghi) to supplement what we figured would be a tiny kitchen. The microwave eventually crapped out, although it lasted 10 years. The DeLonghi is going strong. (I've heard, though, that the company got bought up in the go-go-'90s and makes crap stuff now.)

Also, as it turned out, once we got to NYC, we gave up our dreams of Greenwich Village and found an apartment in Astoria, Queens, that was in a great neighborhood and had a kitchen a little bigger than the one I left behind. Nevertheless, the DeLonghi has given great service - I've baked bread in it and roasted small chickens in it, and it's super for small jobs where you don't want to waste the energy involved in firing up the oven.

I understand from advertising over the years that toaster ovens have come a long way, so it's not that I'm reluctant to get one from a sort of purist standpoint. We went without a microwave for many years because during the first two moves Gary felt compelled to give the microwaves to whoever happened to be standing around and then he decided we weren't going to buy one til the price lowered to something like $70. He was absolutely adamant about that. I figured we'd be 80 by that time. But so we got one last year. Finally. Although the only thing I use it for is reheating espresso and leftovers and making popcorn. After that and the panini maker and a working electric oven, a toaster oven seemed overkill, although I suspect we might use it more often these days. I keep resisting primarily, though, because I can't abide one more thing cluttering up the kitchen. If we ever put in another hutch-like thing for hiding appliances, I'm there.

My mom used her toaster oven all the time when I was growing up. I haven't had one in years and years but wanted to get a toaster oven because, with just the two of us at home now, a big oven seems like overkill for heating up a casserole, baking a few biscuits, etc. Unfortunately, our kitchen is the size of a postage stamp and there is just NO counterspace left for another countertop appliance.

When we replaced our range this year, we went with a double oven 30" model with a small oven above the full-sized oven. It looks similar to:



Some models have the little oven on the bottom where we're accustomed to having a storage drawer, but I prefer to have the large oven on the bottom. My husband has a bad back and with this set-up, he doesn't have to bend over to access the top oven. Plus, 95% of the time we don't need the big oven and the little one heats up in about 3 to 4 minutes.

We did have to sacrifice the storage of the traditional bottom drawer, but I think the energy savings makes it worthwhile and I got my toaster oven, in a manner of speaking.

Lois

I have to second (or third) the toaster oven idea. We have one of the low-rent Black and Decker models. Instead of setting a specific temperature, I put in a slice of 'za, press the toast button, and keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn.

Oh, how I long for a pie from Impellizzeri's. After the offline there we stashed our leftovers in the hotel room refigerator and ate them cold, lacking a means to reheat.