Hot honey pepperoni

Paulie Gee put it on the menu in Greenpoint in 2010 with Mike Kurtz's chilli infused honey, and within a decade hot honey was on menus in towns that have never heard of Paulie Gee. The reason it works is that fat, salt and capsaicin all want sugar, and honey is the only sweetener that stays liquid and glossy on a hot pie instead of setting.

The build

1. Sauce thin, mozzarella in torn pieces rather than a blanket.
2. Cupping pepperoni or sliced soppressata piccante. The cups are the point: they hold rendered fat and crisp at the edge.
3. Parmigiano, and a little oil.

After the oven Hot honey, straight off the oven, in a spiral. Warm the honey first if it has thickened, and use enough that it runs into the pepperoni cups.

Hot honey

A small jar, keeps for months

• 250 g honey
• 2 tbsp dried chilli flakes, or 3 dried chillies split open
• 1 tsp cider vinegar

1. Warm the honey and chilli together to about 70C. Do not boil it, or the honey caramelises and turns bitter.
2. Hold it there ten minutes, then take it off and leave it overnight.
3. Strain, stir in the vinegar, and jar it. The vinegar is what stops it reading as dessert.

The bake

On top

Sauce

Crushed San Marzano, salt, nothing else.

Cheese

Fresh fior di latte, torn and drained, with parmigiano over the top.

You got it right when Pepperoni cups holding little pools of orange fat, and honey visibly running at the rim.