Waitrose & Partners is rolling out new pizzas featuring on-trend ingredients such as ‘nduja and burrata as part of a shake-up of its premium own-label line-up.

The retailer has launched more than 150 new products under its No.1 brand and has updated a further 80. The total range will feature over 740 products across all categories.

Waitrose said members of its product development team each focused on a specific category when sourcing ingredients and curating recipes.

In the case of the new pizzas, senior development chef Zoe Simons travelled around Italy before selecting a fine Caputo 00 flour to make the new 48-hour sourdough base for the No.1 pizza range.

“We travelled to the best pizza restaurants in Italy to make sure we were getting the most authentic and delicious ingredients for our new pizza range,” explained Simons.

The new pizzas comprise:

Waitrose & Partners No.1 Limited Edition Wood-Fired ‘Nduja & Burrata Sourdough Pizza (£6 / 482g): A hand-stretched, 48-hour sourdough base made with pizzeria flour, baked in a wood-fired oven with tomato sauce using Italian tomatoes from Emilia-Romagna, extra virgin olive oil and basil. The pizza is topped with shaved mozzarella cheese, ‘Nduja (a spicy, spreadable pork salumi), creamy burrata (a fresh Italian cow milk cheese made from mozzarella and cream), chargrilled red peppers and fresh parsley.

Waitrose & Partners No.1 Limited Edition Wood-Fired Mushroom & Truffle Sourdough Pizza (£6 / 438g): A crisp, hand-stretched base with 48 hour fermented sourdough, baked in a wood-fired oven, with a salsa truffina béchamel sauce, roasted portobello and chestnut mushrooms, creamy mascarpone and fresh parsley.

“Our No.1 range is the perfect way to showcase the most interesting and top quality flavours and ingredients we have to offer,” said Waitrose product innovation & own brand head Natalie Mitchell.

“By taking traditional ingredients and recipes and elevating them to be the best they can be, we want our customers to feel like chefs in their own home with this exciting range of products.”

Meanwhile, Tesco is rolling out a mushroom pizza topped with garlic, spinach and herbs as part of a new own-label range of affordable plant-based foods. Called Tesco Plant Chef, the range is designed to offer easy-to-prepare plant-based swaps of traditional family favourite dishes.

The range launches will be staggered over the next four months, with the first products launching in the meat aisle on 23 September in more than 450 large stores. It will expand into the prepared fresh food aisle of nearly 900 stores on 14 October and frozen and grocery in January next year.

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