Lasan Group expands cuisine offering with new venture

Izza Pizza

Acclaimed Birmingham restaurant group, Lasan, is branching out in terms of its cuisine with the launch of a new venture.

It is offering wood-fired artisan pizzas with a unique sourdough, courtesy of its Izza Pizza spin-out, which is based in the food hall at Selfridges Birmingham.

Aktar Islam and his team of chefs have carefully-sourced ingredients from suppliers both locally and abroad to give the pizzas a unique flavour.

Aktar Islam, chief director at Lasan Group, said: “The bases are made with a combination of white and wholemeal flours. The wholemeal adds flavour as well as goodness and creates a lighter and slightly more ready texture than you find in ordinary pizzas.”

The sourdough itself is fermented using natural yeasts, ensuring a healthy and natural product. The pizzas are then heated in a special wood-fired oven to ensure they emerge crisp, and with slightly smoky notes.

To top it all off, the pizzas are dressed with ingredients ranging from classic and simple Margherita with tomato, mozzarella and basil to the indulgent Truffle in Paradise with black truffle, taleggio cheese, chives and white onion.

Aktar added: “With a dish as simple as a pizza, there’s no hiding place. It’s up to the ingredients to do the talking and to tell the story. Our cured meats would stand up on their own as a meat platter at a high-end restaurant”

The meats include morcón chorizo, made in Andalusia with pork from Spain’s famous black Iberian pigs and spianata calabra, produced in Calabria in Southern Italy. The truffles are currently sourced from the Perigord in France but, as the seasons change, will come from Italy.

The chefs have also sourced cheeses such as mozzarella, taleggio, gorgonzola, parmesan, burrata and fontina from reputed makers in Italy.

The sauce is made with San Marzano tomatoes, grown on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, near Naples and heritage tomatoes, grown in southern England and the Vale of Evesham, specially selected for their intense flavours.

Sam Watts, general manager at Selfridges Birmingham, said: “We are thrilled to welcome such a innovative restaurateur who is responsible for opening some of Birmingham’s finest eateries to our house. Izza Pizza has something that will appeal to all of our shoppers and will soon become a Selfridges Foodhall staple.”

Ingredients are:
•    Spianata calabra, sourced from Calabria in southern Italy
•    Mozzarella, taleggio, gorgonzola, parmesan, burrata and fontina, from Italy
•    Black truffles, from Perigord and Italy
•    Morcón chorizo, from Andalusia, southern Spain
•    Fennel-flavoured salami finocchiona, from Tuscany
•    Ventricina, a sausage spiked with chilli and fennel, from Abruzzo, east of Rome
•    Heritage tomatoes, from southern England and Evesham

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