Every taboo is meant to be overcome. Since 2016, Franco Pepe, recognized by most as one of the best pizza makers in the world, has been successfully offering his pineapple fried cone, an ironic and bold symbol of the ability to embrace something different from tradition.
The story
Franco Pepe is one of the most important contemporary pizza makers in Italy. The quality of his products is universally recognized and there are so many people from all over the world who come to his Pepe in Grani, in the small town of Caiazzo, in the province of Caserta.
Pepe has not stopped in Caiazzo, but over the years he has opened to several collaborations, such as with l'Albereta or with the Sardinian resort 7Pines, which we told you about here.
His pizzas' dough made with a custom blend of flours and the simplicity of toppings, but without ever neglecting the quality.
Recently the Campania-based pizza maker was a special guest on MasterChef Italy, where competing contestants admired his sweet and savory fried pizzas. After listening attentively to his words on how to make the dough, a challenge was thus staged - where more than a few went down in flames.

For many years - and perhaps still today - pineapple on pizza remained taboo for Italians. But not for Franco Pepe, who corrected the original recipe born in Canada in the 1950s - eliminating what for him were flaws, such as the double acidity of pineapple and tomato and the use of a canned, cooked and therefore very sweet fruit. And so today he offers his Ananascosta fried pizza cone.
Find below the recipe, which includes prosciutto and licorice powder!
Franco Pepe's Ananascosta fried pizza cone recipe

For the cone
- One 100 g pizza dough loaf
- Grana Padano PDO 12 months
Procedure
Roll out the dough ball and crush it with your fingers, shaping a dough disk. Prepare a fondue of Grana Padano PDO 12 months, or other young cheese, to spread on the dough and then close it on itself and proceed with frying. Dip the cone thus obtained in a high-oleic frying oil and cook until golden brown.
For the filling
- Diced pineapple
- Raw ham
- Licorice powder
Procedure
On the way out, cut the fried pizza in half to make two internally empty cones and wrap a piece of pineapple inside the ham (hence the name “Ananascosta”, nascosta in Italian means hide). Both ingredients should be kept cold at a temperature of 4°C before being used; after placing them in the cone, complete with a sprinkling of licorice powder on the surface.
Contact
Pepe in grani
Vicolo S. Giovanni Battista, 3, 81013 Caiazzo CE
Phone: 0823 862718
Website
