Last night I had the pleasure of attending a spring pizza party at Radio Alice, the Hoxton Square pizzeria that will be competing at the May 28th London Pizza Festival. Radio Alice will open a second London pizzeria in Clapham next month.

Testing out some new spring pizzas, the great Matteo Aloe applied a creamy white spread to some sourdough mini-pizzas already coated with a layer of tomato. What I speculated might be a whitefish pâté or a cannellini bean paste was in fact a blend of potato and lardo. It was one terrific new pizza topping and needs to go on the menu fast – and, sorry, not just for spring.

A good hour later Matteo served hunks of his sourdough bread to accompany glasses of the elegant sparkling Pignoletto from Orsi Vignette San Vito. I asked if I could have my slices of sourdough with a schmear of the potato lardo spread. A potato lardo bruschetta of sorts.

No probs. Pizzaiolo Alessandro Cenni even improved upon my suggestion, tossing diced pancetta over the spread (as if more pork fat were necessary). I tasted the bread and swooned with giddy pleasure. “The only thing that could improve this,” I said, picking myself up off the floor, “would be an egg yolk.”

And thus was born Radio Alice’s potato lardo sourdough bruschetta with pancetta & egg yolk.