Dear Mr. Gold:

My daughter likes to watch the Food Network, especially when Rachel Ray is on, but also when the Italian women, none of whom I can tell apart, have their shows. And this daughter has recently become obsessed with pizza dough, which I gather can be the basis for many delicious treats, including pizza itself. The shows tell you to buy balls of dough from your local pizza parlor, but the hosts must be from another part of the country, because I have called eight or nine pizzerias and have had no luck at all. I know I could make it myself, but as a single mother with two kids, I don’t exactly have the time. Who will sell me this magical dough?

Patricia, Atwater

Dear Patricia:

I’m pretty sure you could plead your case at the Angeli Caffé. The pizza is awfully good, and the staff seems especially partial to kids. If you prefer to pop into a supermarket, Gelson’s has the goods. But I’ve always been partial to the balls of pizza dough made at the Eagle Rock Italian Bakery, a fragrant old place that also has great hoagies and delicious, chewy pine-nut cookies. If you get the heat right in your oven — try blasting a heavy pizza stone at high heat for an hour before you put the pizza on — the bakery’s crust can be as crusty and chewy as anything you’d find at a decent pizzeria. 1726 Colorado Blvd., Los Angeles.

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