A fresh look at pizza

I have a sordid little secret to confess.

On the third Tuesday of every month, I sneak off in the evening by myself, park my car down a dark street and passionately devour an Italian.

I am, of course, talking about pizza (tsk, what did you think?!).

Traditionally pizzas were the speciality of Italian restaurants and pizzerias but lately supermarkets have been getting in on the act. So much so that most of us now keep a couple of supermarket-bought pizzas in the freezer for those nights when you just want to whack something in the oven and veg out on the sofa. Some stores like Morrisons and Asda even have their own fresh pizza counters where you can have one made to order.

With my ban on supermarket shopping now in full swing I’ve pretty much had to kiss goodbye to those ready-made pizzas. Not that I ate a lot of them, but sometimes they did hit the spot.

But luckily I know somewhere else that sells pizzas that hit the spot, and that place is Fresh Bite in Belper.

Fresh Bite, Market Place, Belper

Walking past this little shop you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s just another takeaway. But anyone familiar with Belper will tell you that this place does the best, most mouth-watering and top value pizzas in the area, and in fact some of the nicest pizzas I’ve every tasted.

I discovered it on my way to book club one evening. Because I work in Derby and live in Chesterfield, I joined Belper Book Chat as it’s sort of on my way home, but of course I tend to go straight from work without having any tea - which is how I discovered Fresh Bite - and the place has now become part of my monthly book club ritual.

I park my car in the cobbled square opposite the shop and the reassuring drone of the pizza oven greets me as soon as I step through the door. After heading to Fresh Bite every third Tuesday for the last five years the staff all know me and know exactly what I’ll be ordering.

I always go for a Margherita, because put quite simply, when the pizza is this good you don’t need anything else. And occasionally, if I’m feeling naughty, I have a bit of garlic bread too.

I settle down in one of the wooden chairs to wait, often getting to see several other customers pop in to collect their takeaways and rifling through a copy of the Derby Telegraph which is usually floating around (another reason to love Fresh Bite).

I watch my pizza being constructed and going through the little oven. As I see it starting to emerge my mouth begins to water.

Once the treasured pizza has been handed over the next part of my ritual begins. I get back into my car and drive a couple of minutes up the road to park opposite the pub where my book club meets, the box warming my lap.

I’m sure the people who live nearby must wonder who this strange woman is who pulls up on a Tuesday evening, switches the interior light on, pushes the seat back and devours a pizza straight from the box.

But that’s what I do and it’s brilliant.

Fortified by my Fresh Bite pizza I feel I can even take on Dickens - a good job seeing as we read five of his novels last year to mark his bicentenary.

Although knowing one of the best places in the world to get pizza doesn’t really help me stock up my freezer, it does at least give me an outlet for my craving. And perhaps, after all, pizza shouldn’t be eaten mindlessly on the sofa, but instead enthusiastically gobbled down in a dark car, lit by a single street lamp, windows steaming up from the heat.....