The West Virginia Pepperoni Roll

THE PEPPERONI ROLL is one of West Virginia’s most legendary foods, but unless you hail from the some 24,000 square miles that make up the Appalachian state, you’ve probably never heard of it. A scrumptious bread bun cradling spicy pepperoni, it’s a sister to the stromboli and a cousin to the calzone, and it’s found in doughnut shops and sports concession stands, under heat lamps at gas station convenience stores, and on restaurant menus. And this regional treat’s history lies deeper than you’d think.

The pepperoni roll follows the story of the state’s booming coal mining industry that launched in the early 1800s. The introduction of railroads to transport coal to different regions sent the business soaring within the next century, and the economic opportunities also attracted miners from many miles away, namely the Mediterranean mining regions of Sicily, Campania, and Calabria. Escaping the dangerous conditions of sulfur mining in Italy at the turn of the 20th century, these immigrants found new homes in West Virginia and new work on railroads and in the coal mines that after relocating—but no one can claim absolute truth. “We know it was sometime between 1927 and 1938 when the pepperoni roll was created, but we don’t even know for sure the year,” says Candace Nelson, West Virginia native and author of “It was developed within the Italian community, so we know it has a long history, and we know certain pieces,” she says. “But it became such a part of us that nobody thought that it would be something that we would need to write down.”