Recalled a small gentleman with a hot spicy paste (7)
I believe the answer is:
harissa
'spicy paste' is the definition.
(hot sauce)
'recalled a small gentleman with a hot' is the wordplay.
'recalled' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'small' becomes 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size).
'gentleman' becomes 'sir' (a man may be addressed as sir).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'a hot' becomes 'ha' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'a'+'s'+'sir'='assir'
'assir' written backwards gives 'rissa'.
'rissa' after 'ha' is 'HARISSA'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for harissa that I've seen before include "Hot North African sauce" , "Hot paste used in North African cuisine -- ass hair (anag)" , "Spicy sauce" .)