For its inaugural Pizza-Off competition, “The Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon faced off against rapper Black Thought (Tariq Trotter), with none other than New York City-based pizza historian and tour guide Scott Wiener there as the judge and final word on all things pizza. The prize? Eternal glory and the show’s magnificent “Golden Slicer Award.”
Fallon opted for a spaghetti and meatball-inspired pizza, taking the “carb-on-carb” trend perhaps a step too far. Tariq played it safe with a pepperoni and hot honey pizza, but used turkey pepperoni for his signature twist. Drawing on his experience working at Chicago’s iconic Pizzeria Uno, Tariq placed the pepperoni on before the cheese, impressing Scott. This, in addition to a well-rounded pizza and post-bake hot honey drizzle, earned Tariq the title of 2021 Pizza Champion. Sorry, Jimmy. (Watch Jimmy and Tariq face off.)
We wanted to give this award-winning pizza (named the “Pie’ing Lotus”) a shot, and recreated the recipe at Ooni HQ using our recipe for Homemade Hot Honey (you can also use your favorite store-bought brand like Mike’s Hot Honey, of course). This recipe would suit a variety of pizza styles, and we think neo-Neapolitan, sourdough, Detroit-style, or our classic pizza dough would all be great fits. And hey — if you can’t find turkey pepperoni, normal pepperoni will do just fine.
