Pizza Bagels are Back—For Lunch!

As a defiant response to Sad Desk Lunches, the Food52 team works to keep our midday meals both interesting and pretty. Each week, we'll be sharing our happiest desk lunches -- and we want to see yours, too.

Today: Pizza in the morning, pizza in the evening, pizza at...work.

Maybe it's the smell of graphite in the air, or maybe it's the eight-year-olds with backpacks to their knees wobbling down the sidewalk. Whatever it is, there's something that has the Food52 staff reminiscing about Lunchables. We're not interested in the newer versions (with their "kabobbles" and their fruit smoothies). It's the cheese "pizza" -- that sponge crust spread with almost-ketchup and sprinkled with rubber-cheese -- that we miss.

The glory of the Lunchable is that it allowed us -- though not this author, who was never granted Lunchables, no matter how many times she stomped her feet in the grocery store aisle -- to bring pizza to school. Lunchables might be a thing of the past (for us, at least), but the desire to eat pizza at work is real and present. 

With Bagel Bites (and that catchy tune that resassured us that it was normal to eat pizza at all hours of the day), things got a little better, and a little meltier. But now that we are fully-grown people, we need fully-formed bagels. No miniatures, please. 

Thanks to the pizza bagel, you can eat pizza at work without having to tote dough around in your bag (or order takeout). All that's needed is a bagel, mozzarella cheese (maybe some ricotta if you have it -- like you know we do), and tomato sauce (or even pesto). Melt the cheese however you can (preferably in a toaster oven, but sometimes you just need to use a kitchen torch), then ride the time machine back to the seventh grade -- but maybe stop for a Yoohoo along the way. 

What would you put on the pizza bagel of your dreams? Tell us in the comments!

Photos by James Ransom