Today, after the last of the snow in our backyard melted, it snowed again. It has been a long winter -- as it usually is in Minnesota (although I’ve only experienced two). This extended period of long-underwear, wool socks, and root vegetable stews is the reason why more people don’t live here. But as the snow melts and the temperature rises above 32 degrees, there is real joy. It’s not just a nice day for us… it’s excitement, anticipation and even a relaxation (of whatever muscles are used in shivering). And for me, most of all, it’s the search for wild foods that gets me out walking in the woods.

Over the course of the last year making episodes about food in Minnesota, of all the topics, foraging has been the most prominent. I suppose it is so with any subject, but the more you learn, the more wonderful and intriguing it becomes. A walk in the woods is not just beautiful, it is a shopping trip and a treasure hunt. So this time of year is the most exciting of all.

At this point in April when we (Minnesotans) have a few wild edibles popping out of the ground, you (Californians) have been eating them for months. But that doesn't make them any less special. So, this last Saturday we had a pizza party in celebration of Spring. It was quite ironic as the temperature dropped into the 30's that evening. Regardless, that morning we went foraging for the first of spring's offerings. A ritual that I wish was part of every cooking job: first go harvest, then go cook.

We found garlic mustard, nettles, ramps, daylilies and dandelion greens. The nettles were small and purple in color. They aren't woodsy or bitter at this point, more like spinach. We used these as a base for our pesto. The ramps were still a little young, so we didn't over pick them. If you haven't had a ramp yet, they are garlicky and delicious. I usually use the leaves for pesto while pickling the stems. The daylilies are shooting up all along the edge of my house, if you get them when they are young, they add a nice crunch with a very slight onion flavor. And dandelion greens -- they are bitter of course, but add a taste that connects you to the earth.

Recipe: Ramp Pesto

Ingredients:
• 1 part ramp leaves
• 3 parts nettles
• 1 part garlic mustard
• 1 part dandelion greens
• 1/2 part Extra Virgin Olive oil (more if needed)
• Salt

Instructions:
Blanch the nettles in hot water followed by an ice bath. Wring out the water. Puree all the ingredients together. You can add nuts or Parmesan if you want, but we we're going for more of a sauce type consistency. This could be used in pasta or as a sauce for more full flavored fish or a lighter meat. We used it on pizza, with a few dollops of chevre and cooked it in a wood-fired oven then garnished with some micro greens. A delicious spring.

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Recipe: Pizza Dough

The pizza oven and the levain used in the dough were both created by Lisa Ringer of Two Pony Gardens. She spent the last year collecting large stones from her property to decorate the oven all the while managing her wild yeast "mother." I used her levain to create my pizza dough, no commercial yeast added.

Ingredients:
• 1 Cup levain
• 3 Cups flour
• 1/2 Cup warm water
• 2 Tablespoons EVO
• 2 teaspoons sea salt

Instructions:
Because I was making dough for 150, I mixed the dough in a mixer. But for a small batch, do it in a bowl. Add a little extra water if necessary, you want the dough to be nice and wet. Once the dough is formed (as little mixing as possible, just knead until combined), I let it rise for a couple hours in the kitchen and then overnight in the fridge. The next morning, I divided it into small balls, covered with a damp towel and let it slowly rise again until i was ready to cook the pizzas. In the heat of a wood-fired oven they don't take more than a minute.

Osteria Coppa bar interior

Perfectly acceptable pasta and mediocre slices of pizza are easy to find. If you haven't had a decent interpretation of either in a while, you can easily forget what a great version tastes like.

Let's just say I've now been reminded.

Osteria Coppa in San Mateo is owned by the folks who run Sam's Chowder House in Half Moon Bay; a Peninsula institution. Executive Chef Chanan Kamen takes pride in his handmade pastas and hand-stretched pizzas, and it shows. His resume includes Michelin-starred Quince and Jardinere in San Francisco, and Picholine and Tabla in New York City.

Osteria Coppa is a farm-to-table restaurant, meaning they use organic, locally sourced, artisanal ingredients. They cure their salumi in-house, fire up hand-made pizzas in their stone ovens, and artfully make their own pastas.

I paid two visits to the restaurant and each time focused solely on the pizzas and pastas. The pastas in particular have gotten rave reviews in the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News and The San Francisco Examiner.

Braised Radicchio, Panchetta and Aged Balsamico Pizza

I tried both the house-made sausage, speck and crimini mushroom pizza, as well as the pancetta, braised radicchio and aged balsamico. Both thin-crust, Neapolitan-style pies were fantastic for this simple reason: the fresh, creative topping combinations worked perfectly on an exceptional crust.

The flavors on both pizzas were well conceived, but I was particularly impressed with the pancetta, braised radicchio and aged balsamico pie. It was one of the best pizzas I have had in a while. I fell in love with the wonderfully tangy sweetness of the balsamico. It made me wonder why I hadn't tasted balsamic vinegar on a pizza before! It was the perfect match for the meaty, fatty goodness of the pancetta bits. And the radicchio was an edgier stand-in for the typical red onions.

My dining companion at one point declared, "Even the crust is great on this pizza!" The crust was perfectly crisp and charred on the bottom, pillowy soft and sweet on the inside. If you order just one pie while you're there, this is the one.

As far as Osteria Coppa's pastas go, the San Jose Mercury News has called them "exquisite," and even named the Tagliatelle Bolognese one of the Top Ten Dishes of 2010.

Tagliatelle Bolognese

There are plenty of places that make their own pastas, but they either make the mistake of overcooking it so that it becomes mushy (fresh pasta should take no longer than a few minutes to cook), or the flavor is way too doughy and floury, without enough focus on fresh, quality ingredients.

There's no risk of either here. Preparation, ingredients and technique all have equal importance. The Fettuccine Marinara with cauliflower and broccoli rabe was perfectly al dente, and the noodles were delicious with a wonderful eggy, almost buttery flavor. The freshness of the vegetables was obvious and actually made the dish seem light.

But I can confirm that the recent attention on the Tagliatelle Bolognese is well warranted. The dish was nothing short of fabulous with its smooth, rich pork and deliciously creamy sauce. And once again, the noodles themselves were the star in both texture and taste. But for all the richness of this dish, it never seemed overly heavy.

Blood Orange Lemonade

Aside from the pizzas and pastas, the house-made blood orange lemonade is more proof of the inventive items on the menu. It's a fun twist on the typical lemonade and it shows how the restaurant takes advantage of having access to a wealth of fruits and vegetables. They use unconventional ingredients and combine them in a way that makes you feel like every item is fully realized.

Service is casual but professional. There's no pretentiousness from the staff, and families are welcome. In the Bay Area, that's a welcome change for a restaurant of this caliber. They've done a successful job creating a warm, sophisticated yet relaxed atmosphere. Chef Kaman was an expert pasta maker while at Quince, and the peninsula is lucky he's decided to bring his four-star talents to suburbia.

Osteria Coppa
Address: Map
139 South B Street
San Mateo, CA 94401
Phone: 650-579-6021
Hours: Lunch 11:30-2:30, Mon-Fri (closed for lunch on weekends)
Dinner 5:30-9:30pm Mon-Thurs, 5-10pm Fri-Sat, and 5-9 Sun

Facebook: Osteria Coppa
Twitter: @osteriacoppa

Can vegans, vegetarians and carnivores really share a foodie-worthy meal at the same table? They certainly can at Gather in Berkeley. And that's just the way Esquire Magazine's 2010 Chef of the Year, and Gather's Executive Chef, Sean Baker, likes it.

"We want to show the same enthusiasm for every dietary preference, whether it's lactose intolerance, gluten-free, or veganism. We want to make sure they all get to have the same experience."

Chef Baker may be a classically trained chef who graduated from Le Cordon Bleu, but he's always been personally interested in being meat-free, even becoming vegan for a time, before he went to culinary school. Now with his fiancee being vegan, he's even more personally invested in making dishes everyone can enjoy.

"It's frustrating," he says. "We eat out a lot and sometimes she can't have the same experience that I can. Veganism is not an eating style that is embraced by a lot of culinary folks." Fortunately, Chef Baker says that thinking of a 50/50 vegan/meat menu comes to him quite naturally these days. Must be from his previous stints at Millennium Restaurant, San Francisco’s premier high-end vegan restaurant, and Gabriella Café in Santa Cruz, where he oversaw a meat-heavy menu that sometimes offered offal options.

Sean Baker. Photo: Andrew Weeks Photography

Chef Baker says, "I read obsessively, eat out obsessively, and I cook obsessively. I love what I do. It's never a struggle to come up with menus that appeal to everyone."

But that doesn't mean it requires less work.

He says, "Vegan food is much more labor intensive in the kitchen, but you can do a lot of great culinary techniques when preparing it. We spend hours and hours doing vegetable stocks. We smoke our tomatoes and caramelize our onions until they can't be caramelized anymore. We blanch our cardoons and then sous vide them for six hours until they come out perfect. We're always messing around with things to improve the flavor of food and improve our craft."

Chef Baker believes in offering comfort food in unpretentious surroundings that are not only beautiful, but eco-friendly. For example, they filter all of the water in the restaurant themselves, used recycled pickle barrels to create the back bar and cabinetry in the open kitchen, and even re-used old leather belts to make the seat cushions in the banquettes.

But this is no tree-hugging, alfalfa-loving hippy eatery. The menu here is inventive, surprising, and worthy of a four-star chef.

On a recent visit for brunch with some friends, we had the Egg Sandwich with bacon and mushrooms; the Acme Walnut French Toast with blood orange confit, cranberries and walnut sauce; and the Burrata with chicories, walnuts, anchovy and bruschetta.

We loved the Egg Sandwich with its fresh torpedo Acme roll, smoky salty bacon and those fabulous braised Portobello mushrooms! Apparently they’d been cooked with red onions, smoked chopped tomatoes, their own veggie stock and something they call "tomato condiment" which is like a housemade ketchup. It’s the basis for many dishes and the Chef was nice enough to offer up the recipe below.

We also ordered two pizzas for the table, including the vegan Spicy Tomato with capers, olives, cashew garlic puree and herbs; and the Farm Egg Pizza with bacon and caramelized onions.

The vegan Spicy Tomato pie was the highlight of our entire meal, and I say that surprisingly because we were a table of hearty meat-eaters. We were skeptical that any vegan dish could satisfy, let alone surprise us, the way this pizza did. The flavor combination of the salty capers and olives with the zesty sauce and creamy nut puree made for a winning combination. And texturally, the crust on both pizzas was stellar. It was thin and crispy on the bottom, and the dough around the edges was soft and tender, like the perfect breadstick.

Each and every dish was fresh, bright and alive with flavor, thanks to all the produce from the folks at Lindencroft Farms. And it's not just high quality ingredients we tasted, it's the obvious care in preparation.

"I don't want the vegetarians to know they're eating vegetarian food. I want you to feel like you're eating something that tastes like steak," says Chef Baker. "My goal when cooking is for people to try a whole new array of flavors every time they come in and make it fun for everyone at the table."

Recipe: Tomato Condiment

By Sean Baker

Summary: Tomato Condiment is like a housemade ketchup

Yield: 9 quarts (scale down accordingly)

Ingredients

• 12 qts red onion (1/4 inch dice)
• 3 qts apple cider vinegar
• 6 cups tomato paste
• 5 cups Sucanat (or natural cane sugar)
• 2 Tbsp. dried thyme
• 3 Tbsp. ground black pepper
• 1 Tbsp. ground clove
• 2 Tbsp. ground allspice
• 1 Tbsp. ground allspicecayenne
• 6 oz pure olive oil
• 1.5 cups Tamari/Dark Soy Sauce
• 3 qts Water

Instructions

1. Caramelize the onions and then fry the tomato paste. Add all other ingredients and reduce to slightly looser than ketchup consistency.
2. You can use this as a basis for braising vegetables and meats or as a condiment.

Gather Restaurant
Address: Map
2200 Oxford Street
Berkeley, CA 94704
Phone: 510-809-0400
Hours: Dinner 5pm-10pm, Weekday Lunch 11:30am-2pm, Weekend Brunch 10am-2:30pm
Twitter: @GatherBerkeley
Facebook: Gather

Pizza is probably America's favorite default dinner, but it's a dish that a lot of people take for granted. When the average person is hungry, it's easy to call a favorite delivery place or walk down to a local pizzeria to grab a slice. Pizza is cheap, portable, incredibly savory, and seems to have an eternal half-life when left on a unrefrigerated countertop. It makes sense that it claims the position as America's favorite food.

But what if you can't eat the primary component of pizza, the part on which all savory toppings rely -- the crust? For decades, gluten-free folk were out of luck. Aside from making any number of pizza-like concoctions at home, it was all but impossible to order for delivery or find a sit-down place where you could enjoy a pie with your friends. Pizza, as heartbreaking as it sounds, was off limits. Serious fail.

GLUTEN-FREE PIZZA PLACES AROUND THE BAY AREA
I know I keep saying how lucky we are to live in the Bay Area, where a huge variety of gluten-free options are available to everyone. We live in a place where, on a moment's notice, anyone with a gluten-free constitution can get an allergy-friendly baguette at a local bakery and cupcakes at the supermarkets. So what about pizza? Thankfully, we have many awesome pizzerias around the San Francisco Bay that serve up a dish so good, so dripping with ooey-gooey mozzarella and fresh pepperoni, that you've never miss regular, gluten-laden pizza again. Here are a few of my favorite places.

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Moraga: Pennini's Ristorante Italiano
Pennini's Ristorante Italiano is tucked away in the Rheem Valley area of Moraga, a town hidden on the south side of Highway 24, halfway between Oakland and Concord. I visited Pannini's with a friend who used to live nearby. He claimed to have found the best gluten-free pizza on the face of the planet, and me being the suspicious foodie that I am, I scoffed. That night we visited the restaurant, and I was shocked to find a pizza crust that rivaled most regular pizzas that I've eaten in my life. The soft, thin crust was filled with a perfectly stretchy mozzarella cheese and a ton of spicy pepperoni. Suffice it to say, this has become one of my favorite pizza places. Note: Last I heard they were planning on carrying gluten-free beer, though I can't say for sure if they sell it at the moment.

Pennini's Ristorante Italiano
1375 Moraga Way, Suite D
Moraga, CA 94556
(925) 376-1515

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Oakland: Pizza Rustica
Pizza Rustica in Oakland is a favorite place of mine, mostly because they deliver gluten-free pizza right to my house. They use crusts made by Patti Furey Crane over at Oakland's Mariposa Baking Company, another East Bay gluten-free business. While Rustica offers your standard pizza flavors -- margherita, meat lovers, and straight cheese -- you'll also find a delightfully creative selection of pizzas that you've probably never tried before:

• Salsiccia: Fresh house-made Italian fennel sausage, garlic, house-made tomato sauce
• Capricciosa: Smoked lean ham, marinated artichoke hearts, roasted garlic, Kalamata olives, Roma tomatoes
• Hellenic: Tomatoes, roasted eggplant, Kalamata olives, feta and garlic
• Carnivore: Molinari Pepperoni, house-made Italian fennel sausage, pancetta, spicy cajun sausage, garlic and tomato sauce

Really, how could you go wrong with toppings like that?

Pizza Rustica
5422 College Ave
Oakland, CA 94618
(510) 654-1601

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San Francisco: Eagle Pizzeria
If you're in San Francisco and you're looking for a quaint little sit-down pizzeria, check out Eagle Pizzeria in the Sunset. A recent convert to the gluten-free army, the owners of Eagle are intent of offering some of the best gluten-free pizza in SF. With a solid lineup of toppings and a fanatical neighborhood following, Eagle Pizzeria is sure to sate that reptilian PIZZA-NOW urge that has become a huge part of American physiology.

Eagle Pizzeria
1712 Taraval Street
San Francisco, CA 94116
(415) 566-3113

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All Over: Amici's East Coast Pizzeria
Being a fan of paper-thin crust on my pizza, I always missed dining at Amici's Pizza once I learned that I was unable to eat gluten. Then, last year, a friend informed me that they started making a gluten-free pizza that very closely resembled their regular pie. I jumped at the chance and headed down to their Menlo Park location that very night, and was stoked to find that indeed, their gluten-free pizza was just as good as the regular Amici's offerings I'd grown to love.

With several locations throughout the Bay Area that span the South Bay, North Bay, East Bay, Peninsula, and San Francisco, there's no doubt that you live within a half-hour drive of one of their shops. While many of their locations already carry the gluten-free menu, some are still implementing the change -- so I recommend you call ahead of time to make sure your local Amici's can meet your dietary requirements.

Amici's East Coast Pizzeria Locations

• Cupertino
• Danville
• Dublin
• Menlo Park
• Mountain View
• Redwood Shores
• San Francisco
• San Jose
• San Mateo
• San Rafael
• Vacaville
• Complete list of Bay Area locations

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Make it at Home!
If you're interested in making your own gluten-free pizza at home, locals will tell you that the best prepared pizza crusts come from Oakland's Mariposa Baking Company. They sell crusts frozen in packs of two, and they slip easily into a freezer for future nomming. Mariposa Baking also sells pizza by the slice for lunch, with a wide variety of exciting configurations that change by the day. If you're in Oakland and miss those days when you could just pop into a pizza place for a quick slice, I highly recommend stopping by -- and grabbing a handful of the bakery's other goodies, such as brownies, cupcakes, and coconut lemon bars. It's gluten-free heaven, I tell ya!

Arizmendi San Rafael finally opened April 6th!

I've been looking forward to this bakery opening for months. Seasons, actually. You see, it's not that we don't have Arizmendi in the city. We do. And it's fantastic--although on the opposite end of town from where I live. But my mom is a quick hop from the new location in San Rafael and I find myself at her house often because a) she's cool, b) she cooks for me and c) she has much better cable and cute dogs. So when I heard that Arizmendi had finally opened this week, I made a point to cruise on over and check it out. All in the name of research.

If you're not familiar with Arizmendi, they're not only an incredible bakery but they use a very cool worker cooperative business model. Over thirty years ago now, Berkeley's worker-owned, Cheeseboard cooperative opened. The model was so succesful that they helped open another bakery in Oakland that year--Arizmendi on Lakeshore Avenue was born. The rest is history. So without going into too much detail on the ins and outs of cooperatives (although it's quite fascinating), in short everyone weighs in on decisions ranging from opening hours to new pizza flavors.

Part of their mission statement reads:

Acting on the belief that beneficial change can come through collective action, we are a worker-owned and democratically-operated bakery cooperative. We make decisions by consensus and we share all of the business tasks, responsibilities, benefits, and risks, while being accountable to each other.

Call me crazy but this sense of care and ownership shines through in the product. Without a doubt. In the San Rafael store, this passion is immediately detectable. While I was expecting a more watered-down Arizmendi experience that would possibly cater to a different, more suburban clientele, I was pleasantly surprised.

Here's a peek at what I found:

Arizemndi bakers preparing loaves of multi-grain bread



Customers. Many, many happy customers

When I was chatting with the bakers, they mentioned that the San Rafael store's opening day was Arizmendi's biggest ever (they have East Bay and San Francisco locations as well). It was apparent on my first visit that the excitment had yet to wane.

You'll see all of your Arizmendi favorites, including the english muffin and corn cherry scone!


And a new discovery for me--intrigued by the name, I had to try one:

"The Chocolate Thing," a simple, yeasted breakfast bun generously studded with chocolate

So while I visited the San Rafael shop for a few breakfast treats, there's a lot more going on at Arizmendi. They do incredible pizzas--you can check online for their pizza of the day and pop in to buy a slice or a light-baked pie to finish baking at home. They also do artisan breads, simple cookies, and coffee drinks using Equator beans. The San Rafael location has a spacious eating area to lounge and catch up with a good book or just people watch from of their huge street-side location. And if, much like me, you can never have too many morning pastries, here are a few additional suggestions. I can attest to their greatness:

• Corn Cherry scone: a simple, delightful combination. Crumbly. A little bit savory, a little bit sweet.
• Homemade english muffin. Enough said.
• Pecan Roll: This is a nice one to share with your breakfast buddy. Light yeasty dough, nuts, caramel flavor.
• Chocolate Chip Cookies: This is not a fluffy, airy cookie. It's rather flat, dense, and generously strewn with chunks of chocolate. One of my favorite chocolate chip cookies around. And yes, I realize for most people this wouldn't be considered a morning pastry...

Generally speaking, each Arizmendi location will have a few specialties that they only do at that location. I chatted with the bakers to see what would be uniquely San Rafael and they said it was just too early to tell at this point. They wanted to start with the standard, successful line of Arizmendi products and give themselves some time to get to know the customers, the location, and what's really popular. As of now, the pizza has been a huge hit (after all, where can you grab a quick lunch right downtown?) and the morning pastry crowd is growing each day. They hinted that there's a good chance you may see them rockin' the Marin Farmer's Market in the coming months, too. So there's a lot to look forward to. But it's safe to say I'm satisfied with the here and now: they're open, they've got the best scone in town, and I've got a pizza in my fridge waiting to be baked off.

Arizmendi San Rafael
(See their website for other Bay Area locations)
1002 Fourth St.
San Rafael, CA 94901
(415) 456-4093
Hours: Closed Mon.; Tues.-Fri: 7am-7pm; Sat. 8am-7pm; Sun. 8am-4pm
Twitter: @Arizmendi_SR

Shokolaat Lobster Salad Sandwich. Photo courtesy Kitchen Gadget Girl

The first thing you see when you walk into this self-described modern bistro are the sparkling cases stuffed with rich piles of handmade chocolates and pastries. That decadent display alone would be enough to draw one back to Shokolaat, but I was after quite another attraction: a meatloaf sandwich.

I've been to Shokolaat only for lunch (truth be told, I find their lunch menu far more interesting than their dinner offerings) and I have yet to be disappointed. Last spring, I had a mushroom soup drizzled with mint oil that was incredibly satisfying without being overly rich. That soup was good, very good, wonderfully good, but the salad I paired with it was great.

There's was nothing particularly interesting about the salad in question -- if I recall correctly, it was just greens and herbs -- but the greens were fresh and springy and the vinaigrette was neither too heavy nor too sweet. Fresh salad greens seem so simple, but I've met way too many salads that are ruined by limp lettuces and bad vinaigrette and, for me, there's nothing so disappointing as a bad salad. It's surprising how many restaurants can get it wrong.

But oy, that meatloaf sandwich! I'm a meatloaf lover. I love it hot and fresh with a steaming baked potato that has the perfect salt: butter: sour cream: minced scallion ratio. I love it cold the next morning, noon, or night. However, until Shokolaat showed me the way, I never loved it on a sandwich.

Served open-faced on two pieces of hearty bread coated with thin slices of oven-melted cheese, the spicy meat mixture has a tender, succulent crumb, full of flavor and comfort. Sigh. I get a big silly smile on my face just thinking about it.

Oh, and a word on that cheese addition, because of course I have decided cheese opinions. I don't add cheese to the meatloaf sandwiches I now make at home, but Shokolaat's sandwich has just the right amount to give flavor and texture but not so much that it puts this fairly elegant sandwich in grinder territory. I loathe it when cheese takes over any dish except fondue, but Shokolaat strikes the perfect balance.

Unfortunately, I found out that the meatloaf sandwich rotates out with other sandwiches they like to offer. "We have a really good hamburger right now!" the Shokolaat guy insisted when I called to ask about the meatloaf sandwich. Hey, I'll try it, but there are bunches of places in Palo Alto and Menlo Park to get good hamburgers. The same can hardly be said of an awesome meatloaf sandwich.

Shokolaat Pizzetta. Photo courtesy Kitchen Gadget Girl

Other highlights I discovered are two tasty pizzettas with pretty good crusts, macaroni and cheese topped with brioche crumbs and served in an impossibly adorable, personal-sized Le Creuset Dutch oven, and a lobster salad sandwich with avocado and Meyer lemon vinaigrette on a fresh, buttery croissant. The menu calls the lobster sandwich the "Neighborhood Favorite" and notes that they tried to take this particular item off but people, like, rioted or something, so they learned their lesson and there it stays.

Maybe I need to start a riot to bring the meatloaf sandwich back sooner...

Shokolaat
516 University Ave (at Cowper)
Palo Alto, CA 94301
650.289.0719

Hours:
Lunch: Monday-Friday 11:30am-2:00pm
Brunch: Saturday-Sunday 11:30am-2:00pm
Dinner: Monday-Saturday 5:30pm-9:00pm; Sunday 5:30pm-8:30pm

People -- mostly those city folk types -- tend to think that living in the suburbs is dull, pedestrian, and conformist. My friend, the stuff I've already seen around this leafy neighborhood...well, it wouldn't exactly curl your hair, but it could raise some over-groomed eyebrows. Like, the morning I found a pair of red satin pajama bottoms draped over the perfectly trimmed Japanese box hedge. I spent an inordinate amount of time Rear Window-ing it, just waiting to catch someone in the act of retrieval. Sadly, I never did discover which of my neighbors lost their saucy britches, but I certainly look at them all in a brand new light.

Another belief about the suburbs I've been thrilled to disprove is that it's all bad food. It's true that after five years of living in a city so stuffed with fabulous food finds as San Francisco, moving to the suburbs might have seemed like committing gastronomic suicide. However, this was something I refused to accept. Of course, I might be doing a lot more cooking at home -- a sure money and waist saver -- but I was still committed to finding good eats in our new neighborhood.

So, over the next few weeks, I plan to bring you those findings, and let me assure you, they are delicious. Starting us off today, I wish you "pizza long life" and give you Howie's Artisan Pizza in Palo Alto's Town and Country Village. (Erm, any fellow Trekkies out there?)

For the past year, it has been my fondest desire to find pizza on the Peninsula that made up for the loss of my favorites in the city. Piccino, Pizzetta 211, and Pizzeria Delfina set the curve for me in terms of crust and inventive toppings, and it was going to be really hard to, uh, top them.

Even before we walked in to pick up what will be our first of many, many orders to come, I was pretty convinced the people at Howie's Artisan Pizza already knew me. Yeah, hi, I'm the annoying chick who's been bugging you FOR MONTHS about when you're opening? Yeah...sorry about that. Well, as of November 17th Howie's is finally open in Palo Alto's Town and Country Village!

Of course, nothing would do except to rush right out and get two sample pizzas -- fresh from the wood brick oven -- in oder to render snap judgements on this long-anticipated place. We tried the Wild Mushrooms pizza (sage, pecorino, mozzarella, and tomato) and the Pancetta and Egg pizza (house made pancetta, eggs, arugula, shaved parmesan, and olio santo). I was especially interested to try the pancetta and egg since one of my all-time favorites at Pizzetta 211 is the pizza that always, always has a Rosie's Farm egg cracked and baked right on top along with seasonal toppings.

Possibly due to the understandable confusion and chaos surrounding a grand opening, the egg pie wasn't as advertised on the website menu. No arugula in sight. Instead, we got a pie with cracked egg, caramelized onions, pancetta, some kind of cheese, and red pepper flakes. It was delicious. It's a bit rich to have often, but it was damn good. I would still like to see Howie's do an egg pie that lightens itself up a bit with the advertised arugula one of these days, but given the empty pizza box, I'm clearly not complaining.

As a consequence of adoring Piccino's stellar white funghi pizza, I was a bit leery of a mushroom pizza that had a red sauce base. Well, I love being proven wrong when it comes to food skepticism, because that pizza was nothing short of awesome. It wasn't too heavy with cheese, which is good because, as a topping, mushrooms can drag down all but the thickest crusts all on their own. The red sauce I was so skeptical of was that kind of red sauce that proves a pizza place is serious about their craft. A pizza place that doesn't understand the importance of a sublime red sauce is as pointless as one that doesn't understand the vital importance of a good crust.

Howie's understands both these points.

As soon as I saw the browned and bubbled up crust, I was instantly reminded of Kim's Apizza Scholls photos. Judging only with my eyes, I knew this was going to be a good crust. Unless we're talking about Chicago-style deep-dish, which I almost never do since I'm not a big fan of the thick and heavy, pizza crusts should be a silent partner in the pizza making. It should be thin, yet able to stand up to the toppings. Chewy, yet not bready or overly filling. Crispy, but not shard-hard. It's a tall order.

Since we weren't eating in, we did what we always do with take-out pizza: slide pieces on our pizza stone in a preheated 500° oven for 1-2 minutes to undo what potential sog set in during the drive home. Perfection. This crust met and exceeded all my expectations and while I hope Howie's get more inventive with seasonal toppings, I can state that we've finally found our local pizza joint on the Peninsula.

UPDATE: Before this went to press, we couldn't resist trying two more pizzas. We sampled the Hobbs' pepperoni pizza and added black olives to it. The pepperoni was delicious, but I wish they didn't use canned olives. Their tinny, over-brined flavor tends to overpower everything. We also tried the sausage pizza with broccoli rabe (pictured above). This was stellar. The house made fennel sausage is from Berkshire pork and was incredible. We're definitely getting that one again.

Howie's Artisan Pizza
Town and Country Village
855 El Camino Real
Palo Alto, CA 94301-2326
650.32.PIZZA (650.327.4992)

Hours
Sunday-Saturday: 11:30am-9:30pm

It was the season of sauce, it was the season of toppings. It was the spring of onions, it was the sausage of despair. We had pies before us, we had crusts before us.

No lesser authority than The New York Times says artisanal pizza is on the rise. Just last week, the Gray Lady blew the trend up, making a case for the elegantly appointed pizzeria as a cost-conscious diner's best bet amid rotten economic circumstances. In San Francisco, this sub-genre of the pizza form is currently encroaching on the Mission District's once-fior di latte-less expanse with great success. Pizzeria Delfina and Beretta are delicious examples of what's sizzling in Burritoland, though only the former would probably describe itself as a pizzeria first and foremost. Flour + Water just opened on Harrison in the last few months, serving pasta, salumi, and a familiar stripe of 'za: smallish, thin-crusted rounds decked out in classic and occasionally inventive combinations of toppings with a traditional bent and heavy, local-centric nods to seasonality. As if that weren't enough upscale crust and cheese to blanket a few square miles of coveted real estate, Pi Bar will soon start slinging (whole pies and cheese slices for, ha ha, $3.14) on Valencia near 25th, at a renovated space once home to Suriya Thai.

You might not have heard, but in Fall of 2008, Pizzeria opened its doors on a humming stretch of Valencia Street, not far from its intersection with 18th. As of press time, the establishment has garnered 45 reviews on Yelp, most of them quite positive. Yet, for all the times I've wandered past its wide windows, I've never seen a customer populating one of the dining room's handsome circular wooden tables. I've stared at the menu. I've contemplated the helpful photographs of Pizzeria's offerings pasted to the front window. I've watched cooks bustle, a waiter mop, and a manager meticulously refill and reposition jars of red pepper flakes on the long counter, but, never, not once, have I witnessed a person, sitting down, napkin on lap, actually tucking into a plate of anything.

And I've always wondered why. Location could not be the problem. Valencia is a major thoroughfare for night-time revelers and day-time shoppers. The product itself is not immediately suspect either. It's pizza, after all; everyone likes it. Unlike Beretta and Flour + Water, and to a lesser extent, Pizzeria Delfina, purveyors of an ostensibly fancier kind of pizza, the vibe is not glamorous. Apart from the wood oven used to bake them, the wares are not authentic but fairly pan-pizza in approach, though, in this age of hyper-fusion frenzy, that shouldn't deter the masses. You won't find habaneros, chicken tikka masala, or barbecue on pizza in Naples, but, these days, in the United States, thanks perhaps to the influence of California Pizza Kitchen, they're not exactly unusual toppings, and perfectly appropriate in the right context.

Pizzeria is also Halal. The pig is on a big muddy pedastal these days, and there's a chance the absence of house-cured prosciutto, guanciale, and an occasional trotter special throws potential customers off the scent. In addition, Pizzeria sells no alcohol. One Yelper reports brown-bagging some brew, but the restaurant doesn't specifically recommend doing so. Unless you're willing to ask and perhaps plead, the closest thing to a dinner buzz or a perfect pairing you'll get here will have to come in the form of a $2.50 soda. For many, this will prove a bigger sticking point than the pancetta non grata situation.

Could cost be the issue? Probably not, though, as far as pizza goes, Pizzeria's is not particularly inexpensive. In fact, its pizza margherita costs a dollar more than a similarly sized version made by Flour + Water, when the ingredients are obviously the same: tomatoes, fresh basil, mozzarella, and olive oil.

Generally speaking, when a restaurant's always empty, no passer-by wants to play guinea pig. Delivery customers write the majority of Pizzeria's Yelp reviews, and they tend to gush about speedy delivery and the endearing customer service, signs a few people have been curious enough to phone in orders, and the business owners are working hard to amass devotees, one at a time if necessary. Pizzeria is not open for lunch, which seems like a curious choice to make, especially if the owners want bodies in the dining room. Walk-in customers are more likely at lunch-time, especially on the weekends, when weary shoppers from other parts of town, quivering beneath the weight of new purchases, and stoned folks staggering in from Dolores Park make impulsive dining decisions based on whatever is in front of them.

Unlike Pizzeria, Flour + Water, the sort of sleek, self-styled "neighborhood" restaurant that employs a publicist, has been hot. A dozen local press mentions and reviews popped up within days of its opening, many before, and over 118 reviewers have since weighed in, many charmed by the food, a number irritated by the crowds and clientele, and more than a few disparaging of the hosts' demeanor. No one likes a line, and Flour + Water's perpetually snakes out the door like links of runaway sausages. In shaping their doughy vision, the heads behind Flour + Water actually followed a pizza principle not unlike what was outlined in the Times piece, figuring rustic fare in a lovely dark wood-enhanced setting might rake in diners trying to scale back on spending without sacrificing the level of ambience regular restaurant-goers tend to favor. According to Flour + Water's website, the restaurant's design and construction "are all about the mantra of the triple r: refurbished, repurposed and reclaimed," a triptych of buzzwords pretty much designed to make people feel as if they're sitting down to something real, hip, and happening, yet non-indulgent, and even -- gasp -- responsible.

Pizzeria and Flour + Water don't serve the same kind of pizza, so reviewing them in tandem wouldn't make sense. I'm interested in why one restaurant is full, and the other is empty. Does the press machine get behind whatever they're told to get behind by whomever gets to decide what should be gotten behind? Is herd mentality a lot of what's keeping Flour + Water packed tighter than a jar of oil-cured anchovies and Pizzeria as forlorn and lonely as a marinara-deprived breadstick? Does a Halal pizzeria without a pizzaiolo or a publicist stand a chance in this city?

On Saturday, I decided to seize the pizza by the box and give Pizzeria a real shot. At 5:15 p.m., I slowly and deliberately walked up to the door. I looked in through the smudged glass. I couldn't do it. The prospect of being the only person in the place stressed me out. A lopsided ratio of cooks to customers makes for awkward dining, a rigid, uncomfortable experience, like at a show, when a band dwarfs the crowd. I turned tail and scurried back to my apartment where, furious with my lack of courage, yet quite relieved, I immediately dialed in an order for delivery: a $12 small "Popeye" pizza (baby spinach, slow-roasted garlic, and red onion) to which I, for an extra buck, boldly added beef pepperoni. Minutes later, Pizzeria's pizza and I were face-to-face.

The mystery was over. The crust's bottom was black and blistery; the gnarled sides and top were beautiful, rutted in all the right places, tunnels of taste within, perfect pockets of air crunching, wafer-like, between teeth. The toppings were fine. I liked the cheese. The sauce was unmemorable. The thick slices of raw red onion didn't do much for me. I prefer them cooked, semi-pickled, or, if raw, very, very, very thinly slivered. The beef pepperoni didn't taste weird until I tried it cold on Sunday morning. Overall, Pizzeria makes a really good pizza in keeping with its intent: flavorful, timely, unpretentious, and very pizza-like. Everyone should go there ... or at least get something delivered.

Until a few years ago, I always preferred the pizza from my native state of New York to anything I found in California. The pizza in North County San Diego, where I grew up, was inedible as far as my family was concerned, so we always made our pizza at home. My mother's pizzas were unparalleled by anything we could get at a local pizzeria -- thick crust with a tangy tomato sauce laced with anchovies and black olives. When I moved to San Francisco years ago, I loved that I could finally buy a decent pizza. Right now, Oliveto, Pizzaiolo, and Dopo are my East Bay neighborhood favorites, with Pizzeria Delifina taking the gold medal for my all-around favorite local pie. Yet although these restaurants and many others offer wonderful Roma and Neopolitan-style pizzas, I still often make my own pies at home, especially now that I've discovered grilled pizza.

Yes, I am now grilling my pizzas. This may sound odd, but using your grill actually makes more sense than baking your pizza in an oven. Although people will disagree about toppings -- sauce or fresh tomatoes? Anchovies or plain cheese? -- it is universally known that you need a very hot oven to make a great crust. A home oven only reaches a max of 500 or, if you're lucky, 550 degrees, while most grills get up to 600 degrees or hotter (mine gets up to 650 degrees). You'll never replicate the intense radiant heat from a professional pizzeria oven at home, but using a barbecue grill will get you pretty close. Used with a pizza stone, your backyard grill becomes the perfect home pizza oven.

I also have a new dough recipe which is worth mentioning. I used to make my pizza dough the old fashioned way, kneading it by hand and then letting it rise in a bowl. But I recently tried a recipe from the New York Times Sunday Magazine and loved it. This recipe lets the paddle on your mixer do all the kneading, so it's quick to make and pretty mess free. If you don't have a stand mixer, you can still knead the dough, but if you do have one, this recipe is so easy there's no reason to ever buy pre-made dough again. Best of all, the final result is a moist pizza dough that crusts beautifully.

My new homemade pizza of choice is one made with wilted arugula, prosciutto, and Brie cheese. I love how the earthy and slightly peppery arugula tastes with the salty pork and oozy puddles of buttery cheese. It's truly a match made in pizza heaven.

Why make your own pizza?
1. Homemade pizza is much less expensive than restaurant pizza, especially for a family of four. When I buy two pies at a local restaurant, I often spend over $40, but making two larger pizzas at home usually runs under $20 (and if I use only cheese, basil and tomatoes, I spend less than $10).

2. Making pizza is a great way to get your kids involved in the cooking process. My kids love to make and stretch dough, and slather toppings on their own pizzas. They take great pride in their finished pies and usually lick the plate clean.

3. Pizza night is just way more fun when everyone gets sticky dough on their hands.

Tips for baking a pizza on a grill:
1. Preheat the grill with the door closed at the highest possible setting.

2. Place the pizza stone on the grill before you turn on the heat or the stone will crack.

3. If you don't have a peel, buy one. Pizza peels are a necessary investment if you don't want to burn yourself.

4. Make sure your pizza peel is nicely floured before laying down the dough as you want the pizza to easily slide off. If the dough sticks to the peel, your toppings will fall onto the stone while your pizza stays on the peel. Before you try to slide the pizza onto your hot stone, give the peel a jiggle. If the pizza moves, you're in good shape. If it seems stuck, carefully lift the edges of the dough and flick some flour underneath until you get some movement.

5. If you accidentally slide the pizza halfway off the stone, you can let it cook for a couple minutes and then the dough will be hard enough for you to pull it all back onto the stone without any permanent damage.

6. Your pizza will bake in 5-7 minutes on the grill, so be careful not to leave it on too long.

7. Always keep the grill closed when baking your pies

8. When checking for doneness, lift the pizza off the stone a bit to see if the bottom is getting too crisp. On a grill, the hot air doesn't circulate but instead radiates upward so you can easily burn your crust if you're not careful.

9. If using a gas grill, you may need to turn the heat down after cooking more than a couple of pizzas to avoid burning the dough.

Arugula, Prosciutto, and Brie Cheese Pizza

Makes: 1 pizza

Ingredients:
1 pound pizza dough (half of the NY Times Magazine recipe) already risen and then refrigerated for at least a half hour
2 cups fresh arugula
2 cloves of garlic smashed and chopped
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup chopped prosciutto
6 oz Brie (about a half-wedge) cut into ½ slices

Preparation:
1. Heat your grill with your pizza stone inside. For gas grills, heat on high for about 10 minutes. For charcoal grills, heat coals until white hot

2. While grill is warming, heat a large pan on medium-high on your stove top. When pan is hot, add 2 Tbsp olive oil, garlic and arugula and mix. Turn off heat and cover for 3-5 minutes, or until arugula is wilted.

3. Flour a solid surface, such as a stone or wooden counter top or large cutting board, and shape your pizza. You can stretch the dough or use a rolling pin to shape it into a 12 to 14-inch round.

4. Place dough on a floured pizza peel and drizzle the dough with remaining olive oil. Evenly sprinkle the arugula and prosciutto on top and then add the Brie slices. Dust the top with a dash of sea salt.

5. Jiggle the dough on the pizza peel to make sure it's mobile and then place on top of the now hot pizza stone. Cover your grill and cook for 5-7 minutes or until the bottom of the crust is crisp and the top is lightly browned.

6. Slice and serve.

Eduardo Morrell

It's muddy, it's rainy, it's cold...so what better way to come together on a wet winter weekend than in celebration of a big wood-burning oven? The Headlands Center for the Arts is hosting Brick Oven Lovin' Again, a night of dinner and music on Saturday, February 21st, at 6pm. All donations go towards recouping the costs of renovating the center's massive wood-burning brick oven.

The benefit is the brainchild of Eduardo Morrell of Morrell Breads, who bakes all his naturally leavened hearth breads in the center's oven. For the last 8 years, Morrell has been baking breads for both the center and the Berkeley Farmers' Market, using the oven created by master oven-builder Alan Scott. While a separate memorial is planned for March, the benefit will also honor the life's work of Scott, who passed away in his native Australia on Jan. 26, 2009, at the age of 72. It will be a locavore's delight, with a focus on the produce & meats donated by Morrell’s fellow Berkeley market vendors, including Happy Boy Farms, Pomo Tierra Orchards, Happy Girl, Highland Hills Meats, Full Belly Farm, Riverdog Farm, and more.

Photo by Christina Z. Libertini

Served family-style in the arts center's dining room will be caramelized-onion and margherita pizzas, grass-fed beef stew, wheat-berry pilaf (made from Full Belly wheat), squash and citrus salad, sauteed kale and miso, green salad with goat cheese and apples, breads, pickles, spreads, and more, followed by apple crisp and chocolate ganache tart. In the kitchen will be alums from both Millennium Restaurant and the Headlands kitchen, including Morrell, Vince Peterson, Stephanie Hibbert and Ari Derfel. Playing jazz after dinner will be John Ingle (sax), Lisa Mezzacappa (bass), and Kjell Nordeson (drums).

Photo by Christina Z. Libertini

But what's so special about this oven? Built 17 years ago, the oven was part of Scott's first generation of quality ovens. It worked, but it wasn't perfect, something Scott freely admitted as he became the Bay Area's foremost authority on hand-built, wood-burning brick ovens. So, last year, under Morrell's supervision, the oven got a full revamp, preserving the decorative elements created by Scott along with the concrete foundation but installing all new insulation and firebrick. Scott's own apprentice, Quill Chase did the work. Now, says Morrell, it's much more efficient, using less wood, heating evenly, and holding temperature throughout hours of baking. It's an oven that honors Scott's work as it continues to feed another generation of artists and Bay Area bread lovers.

Headlands Center for the Arts, 944 Fort Barry, Sausalito, CA 94965. Saturday, February 21st. Dinner at 6:30pm, music at 8:30pm. A donation of $50/per person is requested for dinner and concert (children 7-13 $10 each; under 7 free); $15 donation for concert only. [ Map ]

Attendees are asked to RSVP online for the dinner. For directions and additional information, go to Headlands Center for the Arts.