Pesto Roni Hot Honey

Homemade pesto base, cup-and-char pepperoni, and hot honey over the top. Green, spicy, sweet, gone.

Time: 8 min | Yield: 1 pizzas | Difficulty: Intermediate | Serves: 3 | Published: 2026-07-24

Pesto base instead of tomato, pepperoni for salt and spice, hot honey to land the plane. This is the flavor-stack pizza, herby, meaty, sweet-hot, and it disappears faster than anything else I make.

Unlike my other pesto pie, the pesto here goes UNDER the cheese as the base sauce, so blend it grainy and spreadable, not smooth. Spoonfuls spaced around the dough spread easier than one blob in the middle, a rubber spatula helps.

The hot honey goes on after slicing. Drizzle it over the whole pie and the honey slips into every cut edge. Mike's Hot Honey is the move if you're not making your own.

Ingredients

Pesto

• ¼ cup Pine nuts
• ½ cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano
• 3 tbsp heavy cream
• ½ cup olive oil
• squeeze of lemon
• 1 tbs water
• 2 cups basil
• 1 garlic clove
• pinch of salt
• pinch of pepper

For The Pizza

• 1 pizza dough ball
• 3 cups shredded whole milk mozzarella
• Pepperoni
• Parmigiano Reggiano
• Hot Honey
• Olive Oil

Directions

1. Dough
2. Refer to one of my posted dough recipes. You can make this pizza any style you want.
3. MAKING THE PESTO
4. Add all the ingredients below to a food processor or small blender, and blend until grainy. Not completely smooth.
   You'll know it's right: Blend until grainy, not smooth. As a base layer it needs body, if it pours, it will bake off and disappear.
5. Add additional heavy cream or an extra tablespoon of water if the consistency does not look "spreadable"
   You'll know it's right: If it doesn't look spreadable, add cream or a tablespoon of water. It should smear like soft butter.
6. Preheat your oven with a baking steel or stone to 550 degrees (or as hot as it can go) for an hour.
7. Stretch your dough and place on lightly floured peel.
8. Place spoonfuls of pesto around the dough so it spreads easier. Might help to use a rubber spatula here.
   You'll know it's right: Spoonfuls spaced around the dough first, then connect them with a spatula. One center blob tears the dough when you spread it.
9. Evenly spread your shredded mozzarella.
10. Evenly spread your pepperoni.
11. Light drizzle of olive oil around the crust for color (optional)
12. Bake for 8 minutes, optional broil at the end
13. Rest for 2 minutes on a rack
14. Slice, then add your grated reggiano and hot honey. Optional olive oil around the crust.
    You'll know it's right: Rest, slice, THEN honey and Reggiano. Honey into the fresh cut lines is the difference between drizzled-on and built-in.
15. Enjoy!

Troubleshooting

The pesto vanished in the bake

Blended too smooth and spread too thin. Grainy and substantial. This is the sauce layer, treat it like one.

Pepperoni didn't cup

Wrong pepperoni. Natural-casing cup-and-char only, Ezzo or Rosa Grande. Flat sandwich pepperoni stays flat and greasy.

Honey made it soggy

Drizzled before the bake, or before slicing. After the bake, after the rest, after the slice. On top of everything, last.

Dough tore while spreading the pesto

One blob dragged across the middle. Spoonfuls spaced out first, then gentle connecting strokes with a rubber spatula.

Flavor was muddy

Everything competing at full volume. Moderate the cheese to 2 cups. The pie needs the pesto, the roni, and the honey each to get a clean hit.

Nutrition (2 slices (1/4 of a 14-inch pie)): 440 calories, 18g protein, 39g carbs, 24g fat.