Homemade Pizza Recipe – Tomato Sauce

The things you spot when you're not even looking for them. While researching my year-end column on the area's Best New Restaurants I ran across this video randomly playing in the corner of my web browser.

Hmm, I thought, that sure looks like Ruth Gresser from Pizzeria Paradiso. Sure enough, it was. In this demonstration video, Gresser shows how to make a quick, summer-style pizza sauce with fresh tomatoes.

Three things really stood out for me in the video:

1. Gresser must be a stickler for mise en place and properly cut ingredients. Check out her tomatoes. Those must be the most gorgeous and uniformly diced tomatoes I've ever seen.
2. Gresser believes in a quickly cooked pizza sauce rather than a long-simmered one, the latter of which typically cuts down on the tomato's tartness. In the winter, longer cooking times tend to work better because they allow the sauce to better incorporate the dried herbs that you rely upon during the season.
3. I really miss summer.

Kelly Zimmerman leading a ladies-only tour of Clipper City

As a follow up to yesterday's post about prominent women in the national beer scene, today we are posting a list of local and localish beer-loving ladies. DC and the greater Washington area have a very decent number of beer women, from restaurant and bar owners to brewers, wholesalers, and other business folk.

And this segment of the local beer scene continues to grow, as exemplified by female-themed beer events like the Clipper City ladies night (pictured above). Tammy attended a ladies-only chocolate and beer pairing at the Baltimore brewery in July and highly recommends going next time. Better yet, why not start having events like this here in DC. Any takers?

As with yesterday's list, the group of names below is not exhaustive. For example, there are a number of great female bartenders and servers who spread the beer gospel every day. Feel free to chime in with shout-outs for other noteworthy local libation-loving ladies in the comments.

RESTAURATEURS

Diane Alexander – Co-Owner, The Brickskeller, irrefutably the DC beer institution. If you've ever been to a beer event there, she's most likely taken your ticket at the door. She's seen and heard a lot, as The Brickskeller's hallowed halls have been graced with many beer greats over the past 25 years.

Ruth Gresser – Owner and Chef,  Pizzeria Paradiso and the women who agreed to turn her restaurant's basement into the outstanding beer bar it has become. She has continued strong beer programs in her additional locations (a third one coming soon!) and is well on her way to having a little empire of top beer destinations in the area.

Jamie Leeds – Co-owner and Chef, Commonwealth, the gastropub in Columbia Heights. There are almost 30 British beers in her selection, as well as around a dozen American craft brews to sample in her U.K.-centric restaurant.

Amy Bowman – Owner, The Black Squirrel and enthusiastic proponent of all things beer. Check out one of Black Squirrel's DCBeer-sponsored events for a chance to meet her and share her passion.

BREWERS & BREWING SUPPORT

Ellie Tupper – Brewer, Tuppers' Hop Pocket and honorary Brickskeller beer event moderator (although her husband is usually the official moderator, she always ends up adding something enlightening to the conversation). She has tasted and logged over 17,000 beers around the world. 'Nuff said.

Gwen Conley – Quality Control Manager, Flying Dog Brewery who is called the "Sensory Goddess" for her ability to smell and taste subtleties in beer. She has great suggestions for beer and food pairings and is eager to share her love of beer with others.

Kelly Zimmerman – Marketing Director, Clipper City Brewing Company and general women-in-beer advocate. She heads up the Ladies' Nights at Clipper City and is a member of the Pink Boots Society.

Hollie Stephenson – Future Brewer, Black Squirrel who spent three weeks this fall taking a brewer's course in the U.K. in preparation for heading up Black Squirrel's microbrewing efforts. We look forward to seeing how her passion for beer translates to making her own brews.

Chris Ames – Manager, Maryland Homebrew who delivers very knowledgeable and patient on and off-site "tech support" for novice homebrewers like the Lagerheads. She knows beer and brewing and is eager to help get more ladies involved.

BIZ

Erin Tyler – Sales Manager for Legends Limited, a local specialty beer wholesale company. She is a beer expert and advocate for craft and imported beer (the flavorful kind) who is often called on to share her knowledge at beer events.

Susan Greene – Sales Manager, Global Brewers Guild. You are likely to run into her manning tables at local beer festivals, pouring the excellent brands her company makes available to the area. She cares about bringing the best beers she can get to you.

WAIT, ONE MORE...

YOU – Beer enthusiast and soon-to-be female beer connoisseur who, after reading this post, decided to get out that there and learn as much as you can about beer. Go get 'em! First stop: Meet & Greet with beer experts Christina Perozzi and Hallie Beaune tonight at ChurchKey.

The seriously creamy buffalo mozz at Pizze

Restaurants constantly evolve, which is why I try to revisit as many as possible in between checking out the new ones that come along. I particularly try to revisit the places that I have previously panned, like the trio of pizzerias below.

To be fair here, I didn't really pan any of them —  save, perhaps, RedRocks in Columbia Heights. I think it would be more accurate to say that I expressed reservations about Pizze in Woodley Park and Pizzeria Paradiso near Dupont Circle.

So let me start with the best of the re-evals:

• My most recent pie at RedRocks was just last night, and the joint's Margherita was nearly perfect. The cornicione, or crust's edge, was puffy and charred, which are good signs of excellent dough-making and baking. Better yet, these crispy-chewy crusts were full-flavored, balancing salt and yeast with the unique bitter-sweet qualities of char. It was the best-tasting crust I've had since my visit to Lombardi's in NYC a month or so ago. The sauce itself mellowed out the tomato's more acidic qualities while maintaining its essential fruitiness. Only the buffalo mozzarella could be improved, I thought. I would have preferred a creamier version.
• The buffalo mozz at Pizze, however, was spectacular. It was rich and creamy and generously applied to my recent order of Margherita at the pizzeria below Petits Plats. In fact, I thought every single ingredient on this pie, from the sweet sauce to the flavorful crust, was far superior to the first time I tried this round. My lone complaint had to do with the baking time. The pizza-maker, clearly under pressure during a lunch-time rush, did not allow the pie to fully cook, which shortchanged his creation in terms of both texture and flavor.
• The crust on my Margherita at the new suds-drenched Paradiso off Dupont was more cracker-y than I remembered with previous pies at Ruth Gresser's place. It was also lighter in density and chew than I recall. But I discovered an interesting thing about Gresser's crusts: If you sprinkle them with just the smallest amount of olive oil, they are transformed into a full-bodied bite, as if they're thirsty for a little more moisture and fat. It's as if her crusts were made for dipping, like a good crusty Italian bread served with a plate of fruity, extra-virgin olive oil. Try it and see if you don't agree.

As a general rule, the Young & Hungry blog is not here to plug every damn product that comes down the pike, but we'll make an exception for the Women Chefs and Restaurateurs 2009 calendar, which you can purchase for $12 over at WCR's Web site. It's a great holiday gift, blah, blah, blah.

The national organization's mission is "to promote and enhance the education, advancement and connection of women in the culinary industry," which says way more about the industry, I think, than about WCR. I mean, we're nearly eight full years into the 21st century, and women still need a specialty group to promote their interests inside the kitchen? The French influence, she is still strong in the restaurant world, oui?

The calendar is D.C.-centric, even though the organization is national. The local chefs, restaurateurs and sommeliers who appear in the calendar include Melanie Parker (Equinox), Ris Lacoste (ris and Rock Creek), Amy Brandwein (Fyve), Barbara Black (Addie's Restaurant, Black Market Bistro, Black's Bar & Kitchen, and BlackSalt Fish Market & Restaurant), Beverly Bates (ici Urban Bistro at Sofitel Hotel), Nora Pouillon (Nora), Ruth Gresser (Pizzeria Paradiso), Jamie Leeds (CommonWealth Gastropub and Hank's Oyster Bar), Heather Chittum (Hook), and Tracy O'Grady (Willow Restaurant). So do some of their recipes.

"The D.C. calendar is the first one that WCR has ever done!" e-mails Rachael Siefert, a publicist for the project. "The idea came from the D.C. chapter of WCR...and WCR is hoping to take it to other cities in the future."

The gentrified-within-an-inch of its life neighborhood is already home to two fine pie joints, RedRocks and Pete's Apizza, but Gresser tells the Journal that she's still bullish on the 'hood. "I feel like it's a different neighborhood from Dupont Circle, and with all the commercial and residential growth happening there, it seems like there could be an uptick of people who would be interested in us," she tells the paper.

Before possibly opening the third location, however, Gresser says she needs to focus her energies on moving her Dupont Circle eatery to the former Bike Shop-District Hardware space at 2003 P St. NW, just behind the Blaine Mansion.

Here are three things I learned about Gresser:

1. She studied chemistry in college.

2. She's a fan of the Williamsburg Cookbook.

3. She likes curing her own corned beef.

I know it wouldn't fit into her Italian menu, but I'd love to try Gresser's Reuben one day as a special.