My wife and I initially bonded over food, except she really hates pizza and I love it. Can east PIZZAS save National Pizza Day (Feb 9) for us?

How can anyone dislike pizza? It’s bread with lovely toppings and in Italy, at least, it comes in all kinds of delicious variants. East Pizza say research shows out of 2,000 Brits 48% said it was their favourite food, and on average the nation eats five pizzas a month.

Of course there are some awful pizzas out there, especially the ones that come on the back of a moped, even assuming it arrives still hot and the right way up. The big chains especially send out horrors.

So supermarket pizzas, what about those? Well the deep frozen cheap ones are all base and almost no topping, plus they never put on those meagre toppings symmetrically, which gives me OCD.

I heard East PIZZAS are different and so when they sent me one to try, I was pretty keen even if my wife wasn’t.

East PIZZAS have a sourdough base, cheap pizzas have regular bread bases. Now of course the dough is basically the same as regular pizza. -flour, salt, water and yeast. However the yeast in a sourdough pizza is not powdered quick rise yeast but a starter culture.

This starter is a living thing, natural wild yeasts from the air around us. Looked after a starter can last pretty much forever. Use some up, feed the remainder with more flour and water, and put it back in the fridge. Simples. And all the time the starter is getting more of that sought after ‘sourness’.

East PIZZAS is a sourdough pizza brand founded in October 2017 by Roly Simpson and Rob Marshall, who wanted to bring restaurant-quality sourdough pizza experiences into home kitchens, without compromising on the quality of ingredients or flavour.

They use 72-hour-proved sourdough pre-made bases that can be cooked fresh or from frozen, as well as pre-topped pizzas. It was one of their pre-topped we received with three days to go on the sell by, although personally I regard sell-bys on most things as a legal thing and not to be worried about unduly. East PIZZAS dough claim that their uncooked dough stays fresh for three days in the fridge, or for up to three months in the freezer.

I liked the packaging. The Margherita pizza was shrink wrapped/vac packed, so it was perfectly fresh when it came out. The toppings were evenly spaced and so we flung it into the preheated oven.

The result was very good. A nice browned crust and when eaten with a knife and fork, as round pizzas should be, the base was springy and chewy as sourdough usually is. Generous toppings too, and we liked the fresh basil

I ate two thirds, my wife grudgingly ate the rest once I told her it was that or nothing. She actually said it was ‘not bad’ which is pretty much a 5 star review.

EAST Pizzas range of pre topped pizzas are £8.99 each.

250g sour dough balls for use at home are £37 for 16

Pre stretched pizza bases ready to top are £15 for four bases.
Shop online eastpizzas.com

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