I have never reheated anything in the oven and not have it come out all dried out.
But the real reason I chose microwave is that, if I’m reheating leftovers, it’s because I found it not good enough to eat cold. It’s never a preplanned thing, so I’m going to want the food pretty quickly.
And, really, I’ve never experienced this soggy pizza y’all talk about. It’s no more soggy than when fresh.
I stumbled across this technique in my experimentation, and it’s great. Works much better than a pizza stone, IMHO. I have a cast-iron pan which I heat up to scorching hot temps (remember, a wood fired pizza oven is in the neighborhood of 800-1000+F.) Once heated through, I put the dough on, assemble the pizza, and throw it under a broiler, in the pan itself. The dough spends no more than two minutes on the stovetop (more like a minute and a half), and then quickly goes under the broiler until the top is browned (another five minutes or so.) You get the lovely flecks of black char underneath, and a nice crispness, too.
I’ve done pizza stone preheated for an hour in a 500F oven, I’ve done pizza stone on the grill with the highest possible fire I could make, and nothing can get me that nice little bit of char that’s characteristic of a wood- or coal-fired pizza that the cast iron method can.
Here’s two sample photos. That pizza’s a little thicker than I usually like them, but great crust flavor using that method.
Not even soup ??
I’m thinking this matters only if you like the thin, crisp crust. That’s impossible to recreate in the microwave. If you eat the thick, chewy-crust kind then I agree with you, it’s very close to the same as fresh from the box.
Sa-ay the skillet works well for reheating, very well indeed. I used a nonstick pan on the big burner, med high. Toasted up the crust first, flipped and toasted the cheese next. It took about five minutes to reheat it hot and melty.
