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Eva Longoria, best known for her starring roles on The Young and the Restless and Desperate Housewives, said she found the best pasta dish she’d ever had ‘in the world’ in an unlikely place: A Pizza Express chain in Cardiff.
Comedian and Bad Education star Jack Whitehall told the story of Longoria’s love for Pizza Express to Jack Raynor on his podcast, Out to Lunch.
Longoria and Whitehall had starred alongside one another in the feature film Decline and Fall in 2017, which was set and filmed in Wales. During this time, she innocently went out to find a great place to eat and ended up falling in love with the pizza chain, thinking it was independent.
The actress, best known for her starring roles on The Young and the Restless and Desperate Housewives told Jack Whitehall - whom she formed an unlikely friendship with - she’d found her favourite pasta dish in the world at a ‘charming authentic Italian.’
Whitehall explained ‘She said ‘Oh God, I found the most incredible little Italian last night. The owner, I think it's family-owned, he was so charming and I had the best pasta I have ever had anywhere in the world.’ It was… Pizza Express.’
Pizza Express responded, poking fun at the actress for her mistake. The brand shared a link to the podcast episode on their official Twitter account, commenting ‘Listen to this brilliant podcast from @jayrayner1 and, 30 minutes in, @jackwhitehall reveals the name of what Eva Longoria considers one of the best Italian restaurants in the world! It’s a small family-run place in Cardiff’ they said, with a wink.
Earlier today, they followed up with ‘Nothing to see here, just an authentic little Italian,’ punctuated with the ‘crazy face’ emoji.
Longoria has previously owned an LA diner and has written cookbooks so if she believed Pizza Express was good enough to pass as a family-run ‘authentic Italian’ (she was unaware it was a chain), who are we to argue?
These are the best pasta dishes to order at Pizza Express if you fancy a bit of the action.
The Best Pasta to Order at Pizza Express
We're not sure exactly which pasta dish is the one that had Eva Longoria head over heels for Pizza Express, but there are a few tasty dishes to pick from at the restaurant chain for the next time you swing by.
H3: Pollo Pesto
The pollo pesto dish is a popular one at our favourite family-run Italian Pizza Express describes it as a 'chicken, mushroom, red onion, mozzarella, Gran Milano cheese and penne pasta baked in a béchamel and basil & pine kernel pesto sauce.'
Cannelloni
This dish is made up of spinach and ricotta filled pasta with passata, béchamel, mozzarella, garlic oil and Gran Milano cheese. What's not to like?
The Lasagna Classica
Pizza Express say this is the ultimate AlForno dish, featuring slow-cooked beef, mushroom and tomato ragu, layered with silky pasta, creamy bechamel sauce and Gran Milano cheese.
Bolognese
A classic, for good reason. The Pizza Express bolognese is beef bolognese ragù with penne pasta, garlic and fennel seeds, parsley and Gran Milano cheese. Good enough for Eva Longoria, good enough for us!
Though it's not pasta, I would also go for the pesto dough balls as a side dish. It would be ridiculous to go to pizza express and not order the pesto dough balls. And if you have Pizza Express on Uber or Deliveroo, you can enjoy them - and the pasta dish of your choosing - from your sofa.