I get a lot of house guests at my place in San Francisco (we roommates are all eager hosts). Recently, we had a great couple from Montreal crashing for the week, and they, among other explorations, were very into checking out San Francisco's food scene. One stop involved Little Star Pizza, which they, silly them, thought would be a light snack, rather than the behemoth of delicious deep dish it truly is (your thoughts on whether or not deep dish is actually pizza aside). So, back to our humble abode they returned, bearing a still-heavy box half-full of tasty, tasty pizza.
Never one to assume that someone else's leftovers are for the taking, I went ahead with my dinner cooking plans. Some friends were coming over, we were planning to grill, beers would be consumed, etc. etc. The pizza sat tauntingly in its box, eying me every time I opened the fridge for a bunch of kale, some parmesan, meat for marinating. The guests passed through the kitchen on their way to another meal out.
"Hey! Lots of leftover pizza in the fridge, help yourselves!" they said, bounding down the stairs.
"YES!" I thought immediately, before glancing around to see the massive amounts of half prepared food already out for dinner. I was heading out of town the next day. What to do?!
But of course—make a pizza-tizer! One that would put pizza bites and pizza bagels to shame! The pizza was removed from it's box and set in a baking pan. The oven was turned on low. Soon, the smell of melty cheese and buttery cornmeal crust filled the room. The grill was blazing, salad ready, and our friends began rolling in. "Something smells amazing," they universally declared, searching around for the source.
I pulled the pans from the oven, transferred the slices to plates, and began hacking them up into one-or-two-bite bits. They were moved to the table, eyes widened.
"Ohmygodyum," were the responses as chunks of drippy deep dish quickly disappeared. Which soon begged the question: why wouldn't you start every meal with an pizza-tizer?
Pizza for breakfast is fine and well. But the true pizza lover should make pizza a part of every meal, even if it's not the main course. At the very least, never ever ever throw out those leftovers.
This little tune sums up the sentiment nicely:
About the author: Lauren Sloss is a bicoastal food-lover who is based in San Francisco. Some of her favorite things include The Black Keys, goat gouda, and guacamole. You can follow her on Twitter @laurensloss.