Q: What’s the most essential tool for making pizza at home?

Ruth Gresser, owner of Pizza Paradiso with locations in Washington, D.C. and Alexandria, writes her first book about making pizza at home.

By Editorial • Posted April 23, 2014 at 2:44 p.m.

Photo courtesy of Moshe Zusman.

Kitchen Workshop: Pizza, Hands-on Cooking Lessons for Making Amazing Pizza at Home by Ruth Gresser — Photo courtesy of Moshe Zusman.

A: “A pastry cutter. For the [Pizza] Paradiso dough recipe, I teach it making it by hand, making it right on the kitchen counter.

That’s my favorite way to make bread dough. It’s not what you can do most of the time. It’s much faster to do it in the machine, but it’s just much more sensual and intimate to use your fingers.”

-Ruth Gresser, the owner of Pizza Paradiso (in Washington, D.C. and Alexandria) and first time author of “Kitchen Workshop: Pizza, Hands-on Cooking Lessons for Making Amazing Pizza at Home.”