Pepperoni Rolls

Pepperoni rolls were invented in 1927 by the Country Club Bakery in my home town of Fairmont, WV as a food that coal miners could buy in the morning or previous evening and take in their lunch for a ready to eat meal.  Later on, a beer joint (Colaessano’s), about a half mile from my house, took them to the next level by splitting the baked rolls, adding peppers, pizza sauce, and cheese then re-warming to melt the cheese before serving – they were famous throughout northern WV.  Colaessano’s has long since changed from a beer joint to a carry-out/eat-in restaurant and the family is no longer involved.

I thought I’d posted about them before but since I couldn’t find it, I decided to proceed with this one.  Our friends Kathy and Russ (fellow West Virginian) were visiting recently and Russ and I began reminiscing about the delicious rolls so Bev agreed to make up a batch of them using her normal bread recipe – she has made them many times.

Her process begins by weighing dough into 3 ½ ounce pieces, then hand shaping them into flat rectangles into which she rolls three sticks (3/8’x3/8’x4’) of pepperoni, cut from a 4’ dia. round from the supermarket deli.  Ready to rise.

After raising and ready to bake.

After baking a tad too long for one batch.

For the sauce, I sautéed some of our frozen sweet peppers to remove some of the moisture then added some of our favorite Rao’s pasta sauce.

This is mine after splitting, adding peppers & cheese, and baking long enough to melt the cheese.

They were sooo good and Russ and I each ate two of them along with a little Italian pasta salad I'd made a few days ago.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

5/26/19 event date