Americans are known for our massive serving portions. Particularly at fast food joints and take-out eateries. So you’ll almost always have a few slices leftover.
Of course, you can just rewarm them for your next snack … and some of us will even eat it cold. But what else can you do with leftover pizza? Let’s explore some ideas from the crazy to the inspiring as we rework that pizza.
1. Loaded Pizza Fries
Warm your leftover pizza slices. Cut them into thin strips, pressing two strips together so you have the thickness of an average french fry. Arrange these strips in an oven-safe baking dish. Follow with a layer of diced bacon, a layer of shredded mozzarella and cheddar, another layer of pizza fries, and so on. Bake for 5 minutes and serve sprinkled with ranch dressing and scallions.
2. Scrambled Egg Pizza
The trick to good scrambled eggs is low heat and lots of stirring. So you’ll need to cut your leftover pizza into small enough pieces that it won’t clump the eggs. Or best results, use 8 to 0 large eggs or two slices o leftover pizza. Soak the pizza in the beaten eggs for 10 to 15 minutes. Scramble the eggs slowly over low heat and add grated parmesan or mozzarella on top.
3. Pizza Chicken Sandwich
All five ideas on this video are genius, but let’s focus on the first one. You’ll need some chicken breast pieces, though you can also use chicken tenders, chicken fillets, or any boneless cut. Flatten the chicken, dust it with flour, dip it in egg or batter, and roll it in seasoned breadcrumbs (but crushed Doritos are better). Fry the chicken, slip it between two pizza slices and enjoy.
4. Leftover Pizza Lasagna
Your approach to pizza lasagna will directly affect your results. You could do the frat-boy method where you cut o the crusts and stack the pizza slices into a lasagna tin. The cheese side should be down. Pour a little water on top and bake. Or you could cut the pizza into strips and bake in a lasagna pan doused in spaghetti sauce, ricotta, parmesan, mozzarella, and seasoning.
5. Omelette du Pizza
Did you get the omelette du fromage reference? No? Anyway, scrambled eggs need low heat while omelets need high heat. Scrape the toppings off the pizza and chop them roughly. Beat three eggs and pour them into the pan. Place the toppings in the middle and fold the sides over the toppings. You can put the omelet between the two pizza slices and have it as a sandwich.
6. Pizza Croutons
Maybe you like to toss these in your salads and soups. Or maybe you just nibble them as a study snack – or for that movie marathon. They’re easy to make. Press two leftover pizza slices together so the toppings are in the middle. Cut these into cubes and sauté them until they reach your preferred level of color and crunchiness. On average, three minutes of sautéing will do.
7. Leftover Pizza French Toast
Start with the ‘batter’ or ‘custard’. You’ll need two or three eggs per pizza slice. Add milk or cream, honey, cinnamon, salt, and your favorite French toast seasoning. (You might enjoy paprika, black pepper, or chili flakes for a bit of a kick.) Put your pizza slices into the egg mixture and allow them to soak and saturate. Fry your French toasted pizza on a skillet or griddle.
8. Pizza Bread Pudding
Bread pudding mostly uses leftover bread, but you can give it lair and flavor by using pizza instead. Take three slices of leftover pizza and cut it into cubes. They should be about 1.5-inch squares. Put the cubed pizza in a baking dish. Cover with a mixture of milk, eggs, and seasoning, pressing the pizza with a spatula to soak it up. Stir in the cheese and bake for 30 minutes.
9. Pizza Breakfast Casserole
Use cooking spray to grease a baking tin and fill the bottom with pizza cubes. Each cube should be about ¾-inch. Spread them loosely – don’t squash them. Cover them with a mix of milk, eggs, cheese, diced onions, seasoning, and melted butter. Seal the dish with tin foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the oil, add pepperoni or sausage as a final topping, and bake until set.
10. Leftover Pizza Waffle
Yes, you can bake fresh pizza in a wale. It toasts raw pizza dough beautifully and those rich ridges are a texture treat. But you can reheat pizza in a waffle iron as well. Fold the pizza over so the toppings are tucked inside. If you’d like to add extra toppings, push the toppings to one side of the dough. Put the folded pizza on your wale iron and close it or the recommended time.
11. Regular Pizza Fries (NSFW)
Here’s a second option or making leftover pizza fries. The language in the video is more … colorful, so heads up. In this case, the fries aren’t loaded. Place two slices together with the topping on the inside. Warm them in a skillet using a spatula or something heavy to weigh them down. Once the slices sizzle and the cheese melts, cut the pizza into strips and enjoy with dip.
12. Pizza Salad
Can pizza be healthy? Well, people who eat salads have a very different idea of what salad is. Meat-lovers think salads are limp, languid (but colorful) leaves that we derisively call ‘rabbit food’. But salad connoisseurs bee up their dishes with meat, fish, and occasionally – bread. So try cutting your pizza into cubes, toasting them to a crisp, then tossing them into your salad.
13. Leftover Pizza Grilled Cheese
You’re eating pizza, so you’re probably not too worried about cholesterol. But if you want to go nuts, try this sinfully greasy take on leftover pizza. Warm the pizza by frying it in a pan with butter and the pizza base facing the pan. Add cheese slices, salami, egg, or any other toppings. Place another pizza slice on top with the crust facing up and top it with more butter.
14. Leftover Pizza Rolls
What’s more American than jerry-rigging (also, jury-rigging) a recipe to make it better? In lie, we ix everything with duct tape. In the kitchen, we invent new meals from leftovers. Use this recipe for fresh pizza rolls, but replace the raw dough with leftover pizza. You can roll and bake them whole. Or cut smaller strips and poke them with a toothpick or skewer for pizza lollipops.
15. Pizza Dogs
This video starts with a pizza-grilled cheese shortcut – just put two cheese slices between two pizza slices and re-heat. Voilà! But we’re more interested in the second recipe. It’s equally simple. Boil or fry a hotdog, depending on how you prefer it. Then wrap the cooked hotdog in a slice of leftover pizza. You can enjoy it as is or dip it in batter and deep-fry to make a corndog.
16. Pizza Panini
Regardless of your feelings about Lil Nas X, you’ll love these pizzaninis. And they’re really easy to make. The recipe guides you on how to make them using raw pizza dough. But you can get the same effect with leftover pizza. Just take two slices and press them together with the toppings on the inside. Add more toppings if you like. Toss them in your panini maker and done!
17. Pizza Crust Breadcrumbs
Lots of the recipes we’ve looked at start by slicing off the crust. But what do you do with it after? This video offers 9 suggestions. Most of them are variations of ‘bake it until crispy, stuff it with cheese, or nibble it with dip. But one smart option is to crush the crispy crusts after toasting and turn them into breadcrumbs. You can later use these crumbs or fish sticks or crusty corn dogs.
18. Pizza Kebab
It’s easy to coil raw pizza dough around a skewer to make a pizz-kebab. But it’s even easier to do it with pizza leftovers. Cut the pizza slices into small cubes and thread them through a skewer. Put other pizza toppings between the pizza cubes. Or you can use any leftovers in the fridge – bits of beef, chopped hotdogs, boiled egg slices, cheese cubes, veggie wedges, anything you want!
19. Pizza Soup
So far, we’ve toasted pizza into croutons and added them to salads and soups. Now we want to incorporate the pizza itself into soup. Fry up some marinara and heavy cream into a thick sauce. Stir in shredded parmesan. Cut the cold pizza into small pieces and toss them in the soup. Simmer to let them fully soak up the liquid. Serve it chunky or mash in a blender if you prefer.
20. Pizza Potato Cakes
Do you want fries with that? Maybe not on Pizza Night. But the next morning, you will love this potato take on cheesy leftovers. Boil and mash your potatoes then scrape the toppings off your pizza and add them to the mash. Cut the sot parts of the pizza base into cubes and mash them in. Use the crusts for breadcrumbs. Mold the mash, dip in egg and breadcrumbs, then deep-fry.
21. Pizza Stuffing
You’ve heard of stuffed pizza … but what about pizza stuffing? You can use it to fill roast poultry, pork, pies, or any other cavernous dish. And it’s ridiculously easy to make. Cut leftover pizza into smaller pieces of roughly an inch. Toast them at 400°F or about 5 minutes. Melt butter into chicken stock or turkey stock then pour over the pizza pieces. Bake for 10 minutes until mushy.
22. Pizza Cake Stack
Remember when we thought everything was cake? Well, pizza stacks are a type of cake, and it’s one of the easiest things to do with leftover pizza. Just take your pizza slices, stack them, sprinkle cheese and sauce on top or ‘frosting’, and bake them in the oven for a few minutes. Don’t use a microwave since the pizza will dry out. If you must, put a saucer of water in with the cake.
23. Pizza Meatballs
Meatball pizzas are a popular way to use your leftover ground bee stew or meatloaf. This recipe shows how to make meatball rolls using raw pizza dough. You can dough the same with leftover pizza slices – just wrap the toppings in cold slices and warm them in the oven. Or you can cut your pizza into pieces and mix them into the ground beef mixture before molding and frying.
24. Leftover Pizza Quiche
If you can make a meal with raw pizza dough, you can recreate it with leftover pizza. Just replace the raw base with a cooked one – with or without the toppings scraped off. In this example, instead of using leftover pizza as a base, the pizza is cut into pieces and mixed into the pie filling. All the ingredients are then loaded into a frozen pie crust and baked into a pizza-flavored tart.
25. Tomato Bisque
This is a slight twist on pizza soup. Start with leftover pizza slices. Cut o the crusts, brush them in garlic butter or olive oil, and toast them into breadsticks. You can dip them in the soup later. Cut the rest of the pizza into pieces and put them in a pan with heavy cream and cheese. Mash the puree into a smooth consistency using a food processor. Garnish with parsley and parmesan.
26. Pizza Burgers
You can come at pizza burgers several ways. You could make a regular burger and drown the top in pizza sauce and cheese. Or you could take two slices of leftover pizza and place burger patties between them. You could cut the pizza into circles or cut the patties into wedges. Pre-cook the patty before adding it to the pizza, then warm the pizza burger in the oven for a few minutes.
27. Warm it Right
Why is this so far down the list? Because after you’ve tried all those fancy options, you may be ready for something more direct. Forget microwaves – their uninspiring effect on your pizza is what brought you to this article. Instead, reheat in a pan. Some say you should put the toppings-side down and scrape it quickly. Others say put the crust down and cover it with tin foil.
28. Onion Soup With Leftover Pizza
We’re not talking about using onion soup ingredients as pizza toppings. We’re thinking more along the lines of bread bowls. As you assemble your onion soup, line the bottom of the soup bowl with leftover pizza slices in place of French bread. This way, as the crust soaks up the soup, it leaches its pizza flavors into the soup, enriching its mixed palate goodness. Simmer or broil.
29. Pizza Popcorn
You’ve heard of caramel popcorn? Now try it with leftover pizza. Scrape off the pizza toppings and sauté them into a sticky sauce. You can add extra cheese, pizza sauce, or other toppings. You can also mash the pizza crust, cutting it into bits and adding a little water or heavy cream to soak and soften the bread. Now add popcorn to the pan and stir until all the popcorn is evenly coated. [31 Things To Do With Leftover Pizza Sauce]
30. Dessert Pizza
Turning your cold pizza from savory to sweet is easy. Scrape o the toppings and cook them into an omelet or scrambled egg. Apply a (sweet) spread on the cold leftover pizza slices. It could be jelly, Nutella, melted chocolate, melted marshmallows, or even peanut butter. Sprinkle nuts or candy confetti as garnish. Enjoy with your pizza omelet and steaming coffee, tea, or cocoa.
31. Pizza Quesadilla
We’re closing the list with a dish that’s pure decadence. Make a quesadilla of your choice, but instead of using tortillas as the base, use leftover pizza slices. Then coat the quesadilla in flour, egg, and breadcrumbs before deep-frying. The resulting pizzadilla is sinfully good. Just be sure to pick quesadilla fillings that go well with the pizza flavor. Anchovies and chicken may not …
What’s your go-to thing to do with leftover pizza? Tell us your tips and tricks in the comments!
Barbara is an enthusiastic food-exploring person that goes through different culinary experiences. She got inspired by creating a pizza blog post after she tasted one of the best-selling pizzas in Toledo.