Slow rise for a quick pie

  • By Becky Krystal The Washington Post
  • Wednesday, May 6, 2015 6:59pm
  • Life

Ruth Gresser moves at a deliberate pace.

“Obviously, I do things slowly,” said the owner of Pizzeria Paradiso. “It’s been 23 years, and I only have three restaurants.”

“Only” three might sound strange, except in this day and age, restaurateurs are prone to much quicker empire-building. But Gresser is about to pick up the pace: Her newest venture – seven years in the making – centers on the premise of speed.

When it opens May 4 in Washington at 1828 L St. NW, Veloce (Italian for “fast”) will aim to fill your pizza order in three to five minutes. Pies will cook in two minutes. Diners will be able to customize a pizza or choose one of the restaurant’s signature combinations.

A new concept? Hardly. The Chipotle-fication of dining has led to a proliferation of build-your-own, quick-service restaurants in almost every genre of food, from Asian (ShopHouse) and Mediterranean (Cava Grill) to Indian (Merzi) and, yes, pizza (most notably, the continuously expanding &Pizza).

In fact, Gresser cites Chipotle as the inspiration for Veloce. Her aha moment came while sitting on a beach during a vacation in 2008: The model works for burritos and taco bowls. Why couldn’t she do the same thing for pizza?

“It just seemed like a natural marriage,” she said.

So natural, in fact, that Veloce’s competition continues to grow even as Gresser prepares to open. After the honeymoon period is over, how will it stand apart? And can there be such a thing as too much pizza?

In 1991, pizza had long been a player in the American diet. But no one back then was doing locally what Gresser and then-business partner Peter Pastan proposed: Neapolitan-style pies, cooked in a wood-burning oven.

When a space opened up next to Obelisk, Pastan’s Italian restaurant in Washington where Gresser had served as sous-chef, the two went in 50-50 on Paradiso.

“We thought we’d try it out, see what happened,” said Pastan, who sold his share of Paradiso to Gresser about 15 years ago, after which he moved on to open 2 Amys pizzeria and later, Etto, both in Washington.

Paradiso introduced a kind of pizza that confused some diners. “A lot of people thought it was burnt,” Pastan recalled of the crusts’ characteristic char.

But that didn’t keep crowds away. In fact, they flocked to the restaurant, especially after a rave review in January 1992 by The Post’s Phyllis Richman. They followed Gresser to two subsequent locations, Georgetown in 2002 and Alexandria, Va. in 2010. A Hyattsville, Md., branch is scheduled to open next year.

– – –

When Gresser worked in fine-dining restaurants, including Obelisk and Le Pavillon, “All young chefs had the idea that they wanted their own place,” she said.

It was practically expected of her, as her father was an entrepreneur and her mother owned a catering business. Gresser, who grew up in Baltimore and trained at Madeleine Kamman’s cooking school in New Hampshire, had worked in the food business since a gig at McDonald’s in 1976.

The Paradiso idea was especially appealing, given that she wanted to work in a more informal restaurant. And five years later, she and Pastan took the idea even further when they opened Blue Plate, serving what Gresser described as “chef-driven comfort food that was ahead of its time.”

Gresser struggled to keep up with the demands of being the chef at Blue Plate and running Paradiso. Pastan called her focused and hardworking, and at the time, that might have worked to her detriment.

“What I learned is … I can’t do everything,” she said. “It was more than I can do.” Blue Plate closed after about two years.

Shane Mayson, who worked with Gresser at Blue Plate and Paradiso, said she has an analytical mind that takes into account all sides of a conversation before coming to a decision. “Ruth has a vision, and she executes her vision,” said Mayson, now the marketing director at Hank’s Oyster Bar. “She is not a shrinking flower.”

While Blue Plate was struggling, Paradiso was flourishing. “Ruth was pretty open about wanting to create a space that was friendly and open and fun and welcoming,” Mayson said. “I think she did a good job with that.”

Gresser said part of the reason Paradiso is fun is that pizza is fun. “The first line in my book is, ‘Everybody loves pizza,’ “ she said.

That would include her competitors.

There has been a proliferation of customized, quick-cooking pizza spots in the Washington area that follow a model similar to the one Gresser is planning for Veloce.

“There are a lot of them,” Gresser acknowledged. “It’s a good idea. No idea is in a vacuum.”

– – –

Had Gresser, 55, acted on that good idea when it first occurred to her, she would have been at the forefront of the scene she is now trying to break into.

But she has had plenty of other things to work on, including Paradiso’s newest branches and her 2014 cookbook, “Kitchen Workshop: Pizza.” Figuring out what kind of oven to use at Veloce and what she would make in it took time. Finding a high-traffic location was also paramount, and when the storefront on L Street became available, she jumped at the opportunity, setting aside work on the Hyattsville Paradiso for the time being.

She said Veloce will not so much reinvent the wheel as capitalize on Paradiso’s reputation, which includes its bready crust. “It’s going to be basically the Paradiso dough,” Gresser said, though rolled a little bit thinner. Her pizza’s primary characteristic is a softer, chewier texture – more like a country bread.

That will set it apart from a number of its competitors, whose crusts are much closer to the thin end of the spectrum. Gresser also says Veloce will differ from the pack because of its emphasis on “curated” pies. The 8-inch curated and custom pizzas will cost $9, compared with the 9-inch Paradiso pies, which range from $12 to $15.

The venture has forced Gresser to rethink a lot of what she has learned in more than two decades of slinging pies.

Take the oven. Paradiso employs wood-burning stone models that get up to around 650 degrees and cook pizzas in roughly five minutes. That’s lower than the 900-degree VPN standard, which also requires that pizzas cook in 90 seconds or less. Gresser said her dough is not as wet as the traditional Neapolitan, meaning it would burn at higher temperatures.

At Veloce, Gresser decided to go with a gas-powered brick oven. It will be easier to vent, and there will be a steady, hands-off supply of fuel that will allow for the consistency to produce a lot of pizzas (it can hold up to 25 at once) in a short time.

She also worked with Maryland-based oven makers Marra Forni to customize the oven. Standard gas ovens have two jets that flank the center, but to mirror the concentrated flames in the wood burners she is used to, she had both jets placed together on one side.

The Veloce oven will burn at about the same temperature as Paradiso’s. Its “incredible heat retention,” and the pizzas’ thinner crust, will help the pies cook faster. Veloce will impose a four-topping limit (“cheese plus three,” as Gresser put it) on custom pizzas to keep flavors from getting muddled and to ensure that the pies can cook in such a short time.

Thanks to Veloce – and last year’s cookbook – Gresser has been developing new recipes. For the first time, she will sell breakfast pizzas. The morning menu also will include calzones and one pocket sandwich featuring a lox-and-bagel-esque mix of smoked salmon and herbed mascarpone. In addition to the regular white, whole-wheat and gluten-free crusts available at Paradiso, Veloce will offer a new “grains and seeds” dough that includes oats, rye, spelt and 00 flour.

Veloce prompted other practical considerations, such as finding smaller pizza boxes and figuring out how to manage the queue. Gresser designed an open kitchen so that “there’s going to be stuff to watch while you’re waiting.”

And then there are all those other little details. During a walk-through a little more than a month before opening, Gresser consulted with her architect and contractors about such potential sticking points as the size of the outdoor seating area and the depth of a prep station counter in relation to the oven. And when she brushed against a still-wet wall, she swooped in to smooth over the spackling.

“There’s so much that I’ve learned over the years that has nothing to do with food, nothing to do with cooking,” she said.

– – –

One food-related thing Gresser has learned: She has an insatiable appetite for pizza. Even now, after a pizza-heavy few years of testing for Veloce and the cookbook, she never gets tired of it.

But will diners? Gresser and others don’t think so.

“As long as someone’s doing pizza better and different, there’s going to be a market for it,” said Taylor Gourmet co-founder Casey Patten, who ran Pizza Parts and Service for less than a year before investors suggested the focus remain on the sandwich chain. Patten compared the pizza bubble to where burgers were several years ago. Their popularity has not ebbed yet.

While the fast-pizza model seems to be catching fire, though, it’s not for everyone.

“I guess it serves a purpose, and it’s fine,” 2 Amys’ Pastan said of the new generation of shops. “I think they sell a niche for people.”

Pastan said their growing ubiquity might be due to the fact that proprietors think it’s an easy way to make a lot of money because fewer people are cooking at home.

As for Gresser, she said one of her motivations “is to just kind of make a nice place.” She doesn’t even know if there will be more Veloces.

Gresser did not set out to go after a new market of younger diners, though she might attract them anyway. And she rejected the notion that she’s late to the fast-casual scene, mostly because she said she’s not fixated on comparing herself with everyone else. As she put it, she’s doing what she does.

Neither is she preoccupied with figuring out how to stay relevant in the face of her longevity and the changing area restaurant scene. She said that’s partially because she believes Paradiso has been ahead of the curve on any number of now-familiar concepts: Neapolitan-style pizza, an in-house and from-scratch mentality, a robust beer program, whole-wheat and gluten-free doughs, and local ingredient sourcing.

Mayson, her former employee, said Gresser doesn’t get the recognition she deserves and might be ever-so-slightly moving in the direction of wanting it. A little.

“I’m not a celebrity chef,” Gresser said. “But I’m okay with that.” One of her biggest thrills: Being a clue in a crossword puzzle in Washingtonian magazine.

What satisfies her most? Her restaurants. Those are her tangible accomplishments. The fact that her signature dish is so humble doesn’t bother her.

“It is just pizza,” she said, “and it is enough.”

bc-food-pizza (TPN)

Pizza pies: 2 recipes

ATTN: Food editors

(c) 2015, The Washington Post.

Pizza Genovese

6 to 8 servings

(makes one 12-inch pizza)

Pizza Paradiso chef-owner Ruth Gresser has kept this pie on the menu since she opened her first Washington restaurant in 1991. The pizza takes its name from the Italian city of Genoa, the birthplace of pesto, which plays the role of the sauce here.

The recipe makes enough dough for two pizzas. You can use the second round for Gresser’s Cherry Pizza. You’ll have extra pesto, too. You’ll need a pizza peel, pizza stone and a pair of tongs.

We tested this recipe in an electric oven. If, instead, you have a drawer broiler, place the pizza stone on the top top shelf of the oven and preheat your oven on the broil setting for 1 hour. Check the temperature with an oven thermometer. If it reaches 550 degrees or more, bake the pizza on the top rack of your oven, with the oven set to broil for the complete baking process. If your oven does not reach 550 degrees or more, move the stone to the broiler drawer and set the stone on the broiler 4 inches from the flame, and follow the broil instructions. After the initial 1-minute broil step, move the broiler pan with the pizza stone on it to the top rack of the oven (the stone and pan will be extremely hot). Turn the oven to the highest bake setting and continue with the rest of the recipe.

If you don’t have a broiler, preheat the oven on its highest bake setting for up to 1 hour (making sure your oven does not have an automatic time or temperature shut-off) and then bake the pizza. You will most likely need to bake the pizza for 15 to 20 minutes rather than the 10 minutes in the directions.

MAKE AHEAD: The dough needs to rise for 1 hour at room temperature or overnight in the refrigerator. It needs to undergo a second rise for 1 hour at room temperature or for 6 hours and up to overnight in the refrigerator. The dough can be refrigerated overnight after its first or second rise. The dough can also be frozen for up to a month; defrost it overnight in the refrigerator. Let refrigerated dough sit out at room temperature for 1 hour before using. The pesto can be refrigerated for up to a week; cover the surface with a thin layer of olive oil (in addition to plastic wrap) to keep the pesto from browning. The potatoes can be cooked, cooled and refrigerated several days in advance.

Adapted from “Kitchen Workshop: Pizza,” by Ruth Gresser (Quarry Books, 2014).

Ingredients

For the dough

1 1/4 cups warm water (about 105 degrees)

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 pound bread flour, plus more as needed

Cornmeal, for sprinkling

For the pesto

3 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves

2 tablespoons pine nuts

1 1/2 cloves garlic

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons freshly grated or shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

For the topping

4 medium (about 2 inches) red potatoes, preferably of similar size

Kosher salt

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Olive oil, for drizzling

Steps

For the dough: Place the water in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough-hook attachment. Dissolve the yeast in the water and let it stand for 5 minutes, until foamy.

Whisk the salt and oil into the water mixture. Add all the flour at once; beat on the lowest speed until a shaggy dough is formed.

Increase the mixer speed by one or two clicks; let the machine knead the dough until it has a smooth and elastic texture, about 5 minutes. To test the dough, turn off the machine and press the dough with your fingertip. When the dough begins to spring back, it is fully kneaded and ready for proofing.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour at room temperature or overnight in the refrigerator.

Lightly flour a work surface and two plates. Turn the dough out onto the work surface and divide it in half. Shape each portion into a ball by placing your hands on either side of the bottom of the dough, rotating the dough counterclockwise five or six times while exerting a little inward and downward pressure on both sides. Place one ball on each plate. Lightly grease two pieces of plastic wrap with cooking oil spray and use them cover the dough, greased side down.

Put one of the plates in the refrigerator for 6 hours or up to overnight (a second rise), then freeze for another use.

Let the remaining dough rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour at room temperature for room-temperature dough or 2 to 3 hours at room temperature for cold dough. Or let it rise in the refrigerator for 6 hours or up to overnight. (At this point, you may freeze the dough.)

For the pesto: Combine the basil, pine nuts and garlic in a food processor; pulse until finely chopped. Add the cheese and pulse until just blended. With the motor running, gradually drizzle in the oil to form a fairly thick pesto. Add the salt and a few grindings of pepper. Transfer to an airtight container; the yield is 3/4 to 1 cup.

For the topping: Place the potatoes in a 2-quart pot. Cover with water and add a generous pinch of salt. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium; cook for 15 to 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender, yet still firm enough to slice easily. Drain and cool. Slice the potatoes into scant 1/4-inch-thick rounds.

When ready to assemble, place the pizza stone on the top rack of a cool oven. Preheat the oven to broil, leaving the door ajar by about 2 inches, for 30 minutes.

On a floured surface, flatten the rested dough ball with your fingertips into an 8-inch round. Hold the dough between your fingers and your thumb on the left and right sides and stretch slightly. Lay the dough down on the counter and rotate it a quarter turn. Repeat the stretching on the new left and right sides of the dough. Rotate the dough an eighth of a turn. Repeat the stretching, make another quarter turn and stretch a final time. You should have a roughly 10-inch round.

Using your thumb and tips of your first two fingers, place them about 3/4 inch from the edge of the dough. Lift a section of the dough and stretch gently, proceeding section by section until you have made your way around the full circumference. You want to leave the outer edge thicker than the center to form a nice crust. The dough should now be a 12-inch round. If it’s misshapen, push or pull the edge until you achieve the desired round shape.

Sprinkle the pizza peel with cornmeal and lay the pizza dough on it. Spread 1/4 cup of the pesto onto the dough, leaving 1/2 to 3/4 inch of dough uncovered around the outside edge. Arrange the potato slices in a single layer, covering the pesto. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup of the Parmigiano-Reggiano and the salt. Drizzle liberally with oil.

Give the peel a quick shake to be sure the pizza is not sticking. Slide the pizza off the peel onto the stone in the oven. Broil for 1 minute, leaving the door ajar again. Close the door, turn the oven temperature to the highest bake setting and cook for 5 minutes. Quickly open the oven door, pull out the rack and with the tongs, rotate the pizza (not the stone) a half turn. Cook for 5 minutes more.

Use the peel and tongs to remove the pizza from the oven. Sprinkle with the remaining Parmigiano-Reggiano and drizzle with a little oil. Cut into slices and serve.

Nutrition:5/8 Per serving (based on 8): 200 calories, 7 g protein, 34 g carbohydrates, 4 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 320 mg sodium, 2 g dietary fiber, 1 g sugar

bc-food-pizza-recipes

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