Pizza is one of the great unifiers, which makes it something great to have at a party. Everyone truly adores the flavor of it, meaning that not only is it sure to go down a storm, but people will think of it favorably.
So, once you’ve made the sensible choice to have pizza at your party, you might start to question what the best method is to ensure that it’s kept warm while all your guests can make their way to it. In this article, we’re going to talk about just that.
On the way to your home
Keeping the pizza warm while it’s on the way to your house can seem like something of a challenge - believe us, we understand. The truth of the matter is that it doesn’t have to be as hard as it might seem.
The simplest way to ensure the pizza is hot when it arrives at your house is to get it delivered. The delivery driver will, it’s exceptionally likely, have an elaborate system that allows them to keep the pizza as hot as possible. Most of the time, this is an insulated bag.
If that’s not an option, then you might want to find a way to heat it while in your car. Well, while it sounds absurd, the same methods that we use to heat up people will work to heat up your pizza, to boot.
Wrapping a pizza in a blanket is a great first step, especially when you follow that up with storing it near some source of heat. A heated seat can work wonders, as can the heat vents in the footwell of the passenger seat. They do sound a little absurd, but when something as important as pizza is on the line, it’s a wise choice to make.
While indoors
If you’ve got a little time between the pizza getting to your home and your guests enjoying a slice, a great bet would be to wrap each slice, individually, in foil. This might sound a little odd, but the reflective nature of the foil ensures that it will retain its heat really well! Plus, it will be prepared for reheating should the need arise.
If the need does arise, place the cool slices of pizza (in their foil) into a 400˚F oven for five to ten minutes. After that, the pizza should be perfectly hot to eat.
Alternatively, we would recommend your oven! The oven works really well to keep pizza warm, just make sure to keep it in the box.
Place the pizza, while in the box, into the center shelf of your oven. The cardboard won’t set on fire until it’s reached well beyond 400 degrees. Therefore, keep your oven at a low temperature, and you’ll be good to go.
If you’re short on time, put the oven to around 350, and then keep the pizza in that warm oven for a few minutes. Ten to fifteen minutes is ideal for a cold pizza, and different graduations of time should be perfect for pizzas at different levels of temperature.
If the pizza is already stone cold, then it’s time to ditch the box. In that situation, preheat the oven to around 350 degrees, before placing the pizza directly onto the middle rack. That will be hot enough to crisp the crust and melt the cheese, but not so hot that the pizza starts to burn in any way.
You can also use a toaster oven for any of these oven methods, though we would recommend ensuring that you use an oven at least big enough for the pizza you’re trying to heat.
While outdoors
Hosting an outdoor event can hold a range of annoyances when you’re serving food, from insects to heat loss. This is the case with pizza. Thankfully, there are some handy methods to keep pizza warm that we would recommend.
As odd as it might sound, a portable oven can be ideal for making sure that your pizza is as warm as possible at the point of serving. The ovens themselves generally aren’t too expensive, which means that buying one for a party isn’t beyond the realm of reality.
All they really look like is a large lunchbox that heats up. Adding your pizza to one of these and using one of the oven methods that we spoke about above can really make sure that your pizza is ideal.
Always make sure to check the instruction book that comes with a portable oven, however. The manufacturers know that one of the things this product could be used for is presenting food outside. Therefore, there may well be some instructions perfect for your particular appliance sitting there right in the book - take a look, it’s very likely to be worth it.
Alternatively, you can balance the warmth of food with the rest of an event through a combination of timing and insulated bags. For example, if you know that you’re going to be serving pizza at precisely four o’clock, you can arrange for the pizza to be delivered between three and four, and have the pizzas placed into insulated bags.
These bags won’t keep pizza hot indefinitely, of course, but they’ll do a tremendously good job if you just need to push the pizzas a little further.
Combining the insulated bag method with another method of keeping pizzas warm is ideal: if you can ensure the pizzas are piping hot when they first go into the bags, they’ll be kept hotter for longer by the bags.
Related article Best Outdoor Pizza Ovens of 2023: Top 5 Recommendations
We hope that this article has presented you with some handy ideas for keeping pizza warm at a party. It can be a tricky conundrum to deal with, but we’re sure that, armed with these simple tips, you’ll be able to ensure that the pizza you’re working with is as warm and delicious as it can possibly be.
Whichever method you decide to opt for when catering for a pizza party, we hope that you have a tasty time!