Since realising I was wheat intolerant, it has become a bit of a quest to find the best gluten free pizza bases. As with all things gluten free, most substitutes are a cross between cardboard and cement. If you are lucky, your teeth survive, but your taste buds do not get the expected treat. I can honestly say that after much sacrificing of taste and teeth, I have now found the best gluten free pizza bases, and they are made here in the UK!
I will first share my Gluten Free story with you, in the hope that some people reading this page will recognise the same problems that I experienced after eating wheat and realise that they might be wheat intolerant too.
Understanding this has definitely changed my life for the better, not just digestively but also in losing very dry elbows and a rash on the top left of my arm – all caused, I later realised, by my wheat intolerance.
My Discovery Of Wheat Intolerance From Eating Pizzas
I have always enjoyed a pizza, after all, who doesn’t?
However, I always used to have a dreadful, heavy feeling after eating pizza, which for many years I assumed was just what everyone experienced.
After all, there is usually a lot of meat and cheese on a pizza, so it wasn’t surprising to me that after eating pizza I felt more sluggish than a one litre car towing a superyacht up a steep hill.
On discussing this feeling with friends, I was surprised to hear that they never experienced this feeling at all.
It was just me.
Why did I experience this?
I decided to try eating no wheat for an entire two week holiday in Greece one year, and two things happened:
- I didn’t feel sluggish after eating which I often did (especially in Greece with their delicious bread); and
- My children actually asked me to start eating wheat again because I was simply too happy and had far too much energy for them (and they were young teenagers at the time).
I realised that I was onto something.
This became more apparent when on returning to the UK I accidentally consumed some wheat in a gravy at a pub carvery.
I won’t go into what happened next, but let’s just say that the rest of my day was ruined and I had a very sore stomach for the next two days.
That was enough confirmation for me that I definitely was wheat intolerant, which explained my overly bloated stomach every time I consumed bread or pizza bases.
My Quest For The Best Gluten Free Pizza Bases
Now that I knew I could not consume wheat, I started to test any and all gluten free options that I could find when it came to bread and pizzas.
Anyone who is already following a gluten or wheat free diet, that whilst things are improving, this is not a great or exciting experience.
When it came to pizzas, the only bearable consumption I could find after trying everything available out there was from the chain Zizzi, but even this still wasn’t like eating a proper, doughy, soft yet crisp crusted pizza.
It was still a bit too cardboardy to be exciting, but it was the best that I could find, so I would happily eat one from time to time.
I had almost given up hope of ever eating (or smelling) a decent pizza again now that I was gluten free, when I stumbled across these incredible, exceptional and ridiculously tasty Gluten Free Pizza bases.
Introducing (IMHO) The Best Gluten Free Pizza Bases In The World!
These pizza bases were created after much trial and error by the wonderful Antonella Vecciu, originally from Sardinia, Italy, who, like me, longed for a proper soft, crispy edged, gorgeous smelling gluten free pizza base.
I am deliriously happy to say that she cracked this challenge in 2016!
Having consumed one of the pizza bases at Franco Manca restaurant, I first could not believe that they were gluten free because they simply tasted way toooo good.
I cannot tell you how many times restaurants have served me something described as ‘gluten free’, only for me on double checking that it really was safe to eat because it looked and smelt too good, to have it whipped away from under my nose when they realise that they have delivered the wrong meal to me.
I realise this is correct when a piece of garnished cardboard is then placed in front of me which is as appetising as it sounds!
So it was with the usual expectation that I triple checked that the pizza placed in front of me at Franco Manca was indeed gluten free, because it just smelt and felt too good to be true, to have it confirmed three times that it was.
I took a bite of the pizza – oh my word.
I took another bite, explaining to my family that I feared the worst.
It smelt like pizza, it tasted like pizza, it simply had to be too good to be true, didn’t it?
I finished the pizza in record time, fully expecting to feel pain in my stomach within a few minutes, but when nothing happened inside 30 minutes, then 60 minutes, then for the remainder of the day, I was simply blown away!
Antonella has only gone and done what she set out to do – create a ridiculously fantastic gluten free pizza base.
Thank you so much Antonella and all of her wonderful team at the Bocconcini Bakery (details below).
I have just had 5 delivered to my home and the smell upon their arrival was a dream!
I have asked Antonella’s team to contact my local Italian restaurant, Paradiso Nailsea, to ask them to stock it so that I can finally have my favourite pizza there again, some 8-10 years since I last had one!
Fingers crossed.
My Latest Successful Bake
This was a beauty.
Simple but very tasty:
- Passata for the tomato base
- Pizza mozarella for the cheese
- Small pepperoni
- Chilli oil
Baked for 11 minutes at 180c and it was just PERFECT:
The best news for you my gluten free pizza lover?
You don’t have to wait for the best gluten free pizza bases to come to a restaurant near you – you can buy them straight from Antonella, Aurora and the team at Bocconcini Bakery in London and have them shipped straight to your home.
I can assure you that you will not regret doing so!
Here is her bakery: Bocconcini Bakery:>>
Pizza is now firmly back on my menu, thank you team Antonella and team Bocconcini!
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