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Tuesday, May 28, 2019

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

5 comments:

  1. These sure sound and look like a real tasty treat, they would make a nice easy lunch to carry to work as well.

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  2. Looks like an excellent meal! Gotta love all the cheese involved.

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  3. Gawd, I'd love to try one of those. And with Bev's homemade bread, I can't imagine how good.

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  4. We don't have pepperoni rolls on the West Coast as far as I know - I've never heard of them. I love that Bev whipped up a batch for you guys - they look super tasty!

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  5. Larry, We didn't get close enough to "pepperoni roll' territory in West Virginia this past summer so I still haven't sampled this treat. My version would feature pepperjack cheese and sliced jalapenos! Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

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