Vertigo

Don’t look down. A bone-white canvas of melted mozzarella and provolone, trapped in a dizzying double spiral of neon-orange vodka sauce and emerald basil pesto, studded with crispy soppressata and finished with a snowfall of pecorino and parmigiano.

The first Fear Fest pie, for the Alfred Hitchcock year. Also known as Spiral Into Madness or The Bell Tower.

You’ll need two zip-top bags for piping. Squeeze bottles clog on the little chunks in the sauces; a bag with a corner snipped off (about ¼ inch) doesn’t.

Sauce prep (1–2 hours ahead)

1. Reduce the vodka sauce. Simmer the [[vodka]] vodka sauce with the [[chili]] red pepper flakes in a small pan over medium heat for 5–7 minutes, stirring now and then, until a spoon dragged through it leaves a brief trail. Take it a little thicker than seems right: the cream thins it back out, and a thick sauce holds a sharper line.
2. Add the glow. Off the heat, stir in the [[cream]] heavy cream. It turns from brick red to an opaque, bright pastel orange. Let it cool to room temperature, then spoon it into bag #1 and push it down into one corner.
3. Loosen the pesto. Whisk the [[pesto_oil]] olive oil into the room-temperature [[pesto]] pesto until glossy and smooth, then spoon it into bag #2 the same way.
4. Keep both bags on the counter. Never pipe ice-cold sauce onto a hot pie. Snip the corners just before piping.

Build: cheese first

1. Stretch a 380–420g dough ball to 14 inches with a defined rim, and move it to a peel dusted with semolina. (In the dough calculator, set grams each to about 400.)
2. Cheese. Mix the [[mozz]] mozzarella and [[provolone]] provolone and hold back about a third. Scatter the rest evenly, stopping about ½ inch short of the rim. Cheese on the crust edge burns and flattens the rim. Going cheese-first keeps moisture off the dough.
3. Soppressata. Cut the [[sopp]] soppressata into quarters or strips and scatter it fairly sparsely over the cheese.
4. Cover. Sprinkle the held-back cheese over the top so the meat is mostly covered, with some edges peeking out. The cheese holds the meat in place, keeps its fat from tinting the canvas, and the exposed edges still crisp.
5. Pipe the orange spiral. Starting in the dead center, squeeze one steady, continuous ribbon of vodka sauce, spiraling out to the rim. Leave 1–1½ inches between the rings: that’s the track for the green spiral after the bake.

Bake: outdoor oven

1. Preheat the stone to 700–750°F on a medium-high flame.
2. Launch, then drop the flame to medium-low so the cheese melts evenly and the vodka sauce caramelizes without scorching.
3. Turn every 30–45 seconds for a 3–4 minute bake, until the rim is blistered and the soppressata edges are crisp and sizzling.
4. Rest 60 seconds on a cooling rack so the cheese sets a little.

The reveal

Do this at the table.

1. Slice first. Cut 8 slices with a rocker blade or wheel and keep them pushed together in a circle. Slicing after the pesto drags green across the white and orange.
2. Pipe the green spiral into the white tracks between the orange rings, from the center out.
3. The final snowfall. Finish with a heavy snowfall of the [[hard_cheese]] grated pecorino and parmigiano around the rim. Serve right away.