A simple food of bread dough wrapped around pepperoni, the rolls inspire fierce loyalty in the hearts of those who love them.
CLARKSBURG, W.Va. -- When the New York Times ran a story about pepperoni rolls several weeks ago, the article sparked some heated discussion among north-central West Virginians.
When The New York Times ran a story about pepperoni rolls several weeks ago, the article sparked some heated discussion among north-central West Virginians.
Opinionated callers to a Fairmont radio program that week lightened our mood as my son, his friend, and I were stuck in traffic en route to an evening WVU football game.
Some callers were distressed that the article focused on Tomaro's Bakery in Clarksburg, when everyone knows that pepperoni rolls were invented by Country Club Bakery in Fairmont. Others scoffed at the mention of hot dog chili as a topping for pepperoni rolls. They knew that Colasessano's in Fairmont has the right idea. They top their homemade 8-inch pepperoni rolls with their special meat sauce, provolone cheese and Oliverio's Italian peppers, then toast the whole concoction.
Still others took issue with the reference to "coins" of pepperoni. Sticks make the best pepperoni rolls, they said.
Bob Heffner of Fairmont, who manages the Web site www.bobheffner.com/pepperoniroll dedicated to pepperoni rolls, laughed at the quibbles. "I prefer the sticks, but I'll eat any of them. I get them at all those places, and sometimes I bake my own," he said. "I don't think you can go wrong with a pepperoni roll, especially one hot out of the oven."
Heffner speaks from experience. He grew up half a block from Country Club Bakery. He and his brother couldn't resist the smell of baking bread wafting down the street and frequently stopped by to pick up bread and pepperoni rolls. When they bought a bag of a dozen pepperoni rolls, the clerk always handed them an extra one, saying, "You know you're going to eat one on the way home."
Like other natives of the Clarksburg/Fairmont pepperoni roll beltway who move away from home, Heffner was surprised to learn that pepperoni rolls were regional fare. "I went away to college and nobody had ever heard of them. I couldn't believe it."
The uninitiated don't always grasp the appeal of pepperoni rolls from a bare bones description: "pepperoni wrapped in dough and baked." You have to bite into a hot roll fresh from the oven and taste the spicy pepperoni surrounded by pillowy Italian bread. The oil from the pepperoni seeps through the bread to stain the bottom crust a distinctive rusty orange.
Giuseppe Argiro, a former miner, is said to have invented the pepperoni roll as a handy, portable food for coal miners to take in their lunch pails, Heffner said. Argiro passed his recipe down to his son Frank, who owned Country Club Bakery in Fairmont until 1997, where they still follow his recipe.
West Virginia came close to losing its commercially produced pepperoni rolls in 1987 when the U.S. Department of Agriculture moved to reclassify pepperoni roll bakeries as meat packers, making them subject to expensive meat-packing standards. Most of the small, family-owned bakeries could not afford the changes.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va, came to the rescue, and contacted officials in the Agriculture Department. Pepperoni is USDA inspected and sliced before it comes to the bakeries. The bakeries were permitted to continue to bake their pepperoni rolls.
That was great news to pepperoni roll lovers, like Joani Heater, Robert Shields and Greg Scolapio who all stopped by D'Annunzio's Bakery for a bread or roll fix recently. Owner Chris D'Annunzio was pulling freshly baked pepperoni rolls out of the oven. He usually has them coming out of the oven on the hour, so customers get a warm roll.
"I've been eating these all my life and I still have trouble stopping after two or three," D'Annunzio said.
D'Annunzio follows the same recipe his great-grandfather used when he opened Health Bread Co. in its current Clarksburg North View location 83 years ago. Specializing in Italian bread, pizza shells, rolls and buns, D'Annunzio's supplies local restaurants as well as drop-by customers.
"You should be here on a Sunday morning after 11 o'clock Mass," said D'Annunzio. "They're lining the sidewalk waiting to get bread to have with their Sunday dinners." The neighborhood is still home to many Italian families.
Greg Scolapio's grandparents lived near D'Annunzio's, and he remembers standing in those Sunday morning lines. Today, he and his family live in his grandparents' home. He puts his young daughter Ava in the stroller and walks to D'Annunzio's for Italian bread, or "cake" as she calls it, and pepperoni rolls.
"I guess there's a certain form of nostalgia to coming here," Scolapio said. "A lot of us came here as kids, and now we're adults bringing our kids here."
Just a few miles east of D'Annunzio's bakery is their chief rival for Clarksburg's Italian bread market, Tomaro's bakery in Glen Elk. Both bakeries were founded by the current owners' great-grandfathers and both produce pepperoni rolls for about $1.30 each.
"They're great for kids or for hunters to take out with them," D'Annunzio said. "For $1.29, that's a pretty good meal."
Fans of Colasessano's in Fairmont say it's an even better meal when topped with sauce, peppers and cheese, then "toasted to perfection," as the menu claims. Colasessano's also bakes their own buns and breads, but offer them on sandwiches and hoagies in two full-service restaurant locations.
An 8-inch pepperoni bun with everything costs $4. They will reluctantly sell you a plain one for $1.75, "but you really have to try it toasted with everything," the clerk urges.
Despite their Mountain State origins, pepperoni rolls have an international following, at least on Heffner's Web site. Heffner receives e-mails daily from people throughout the United States and abroad containing memories of pepperoni rolls and requests for a shipment. He doesn't make or ship them, but thinks a bakery that shipped would be profitable.
"It amazes me when I hear the stories from people who have moved away from West Virginia. They remember pepperoni rolls fondly - like it was yesterday," Heffner said. "They usually had a specific bakery where they bought and ate them, or a grandmother who made them on a chilly autumn day. Their memories are so vivid over such a simple thing."
Reach Julie Robinson at jul...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1230.
Pepperoni roll country
Colasessano's, 506 Pennsylvania Ave., Fairmont, or in the Middle Town Mall. 304-363-9713
Country Club Bakery, 1211 Country Club Road, Fairmont. 304-363-5690.
D'Annunzio's or Health Bread Co., 1909 Williams Ave., Clarksburg. (304) 622-3492
Tomaro's Bakery, 411 N. Fourth St., Clarksburg. 304-622-0691
Taste test ends in dead heat
On our foray into pepperoni roll country, we visited the four bakeries whose names were most frequently mentioned when we asked where we could find good pepperoni rolls.
In Clarksburg, visit D'Annunzio's and Tomaro's. Stop by Country Club and Colasessano's in Fairmont. Alas, Country Club Bakery was closed the day of our great pepperoni roll run (they're closed on Wednesdays), so our taste test does not include rolls from there.
Yes, we know there are other bakeries, and I'm sure we missed someone's favorite, but we only had a couple of hours to complete this important assignment. Clearly, not enough time to seriously research the subject.
We purchased pepperoni rolls to bring back to the office for a blind taste test. Nothing could possibly compare to the warm rolls we devoured fresh from the oven, but our tasters made do with the warmed-over samples.
In an odd coincidence on the evening I returned home, I found bags of Rogers and Mazzas pepperoni rolls that we purchased for a high school fundraiser. These rolls are made for the long haul. They're individually wrapped with a dough that contains preservatives to increase the shelf life. You'll find them in convenience stores, Wal-Mart, Sam's and Perdue Grocery at the Capitol Market. I tossed a few of them in with our other samples.
The testers were a mix of native West Virginians (two from Marion County) and out-of-staters. Several had not heard of pepperoni rolls until they moved here.
The first-place votes were almost evenly split between D'Annunzios and Rogers and Mazzas, two very different tasting rolls.
Most everyone agreed that D'Annunzio's and Tomaro's produced remarkably similar rolls, but gave D'Annunzio's the edge. One of the Fairmont natives paid them the ultimate compliment, saying that they tasted like Country Club rolls. Everyone liked the chewy dough with its crispy outer edge. Several commented on the spicy, good-quality pepperoni.
Fans of Rogers and Mazzas liked the moist, slightly sweet dough that contrasted with slices of zippy pepperoni, although they would have preferred it to be cut into sticks.
Make your own at home...
The Italian bakery owners aren't about to divulge their pepperoni roll recipes, although Chris D'Anunnzio said the dough is the same recipe he uses for his Italian bread loaves. If you want to try your hand at making pepperoni rolls, but don't have much time, the Rhodes frozen dinner roll dough provides a quick jumpstart. Just thaw the rolls as instructed, insert some pepperoni sticks, then let the rolls rise and bake as directed.
The mouth-watering smell of my mother's pepperoni rolls baking is a treasured childhood memory. Later, she baked them for us to take to Mountaineer football tailgates, and I'll never forget the how good they tasted on cold game days washed down with warm tomato soup we'd spoon from thermoses.
Mom followed the basic roll recipe in Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and added pepperoni sticks before the second rising. If you don't like a slightly sweet dough, cut back on the sugar.
When The New York Times ran a story about pepperoni rolls several weeks ago, the article sparked some heated discussion among north-central West Virginians.
Opinionated callers to a Fairmont radio program that week lightened our mood as my son, his friend, and I were stuck in traffic en route to an evening WVU football game.
Some callers were distressed that the article focused on Tomaro's Bakery in Clarksburg, when everyone knows that pepperoni rolls were invented by Country Club Bakery in Fairmont. Others scoffed at the mention of hot dog chili as a topping for pepperoni rolls. They knew that Colasessano's in Fairmont has the right idea. They top their homemade 8-inch pepperoni rolls with their special meat sauce, provolone cheese and Oliverio's Italian peppers, then toast the whole concoction.
Still others took issue with the reference to "coins" of pepperoni. Sticks make the best pepperoni rolls, they said.
Bob Heffner of Fairmont, who manages the Web site www.bobheffner.com/pepperoniroll dedicated to pepperoni rolls, laughed at the quibbles. "I prefer the sticks, but I'll eat any of them. I get them at all those places, and sometimes I bake my own," he said. "I don't think you can go wrong with a pepperoni roll, especially one hot out of the oven."
Heffner speaks from experience. He grew up half a block from Country Club Bakery. He and his brother couldn't resist the smell of baking bread wafting down the street and frequently stopped by to pick up bread and pepperoni rolls. When they bought a bag of a dozen pepperoni rolls, the clerk always handed them an extra one, saying, "You know you're going to eat one on the way home."
Like other natives of the Clarksburg/Fairmont pepperoni roll beltway who move away from home, Heffner was surprised to learn that pepperoni rolls were regional fare. "I went away to college and nobody had ever heard of them. I couldn't believe it."
The uninitiated don't always grasp the appeal of pepperoni rolls from a bare bones description: "pepperoni wrapped in dough and baked." You have to bite into a hot roll fresh from the oven and taste the spicy pepperoni surrounded by pillowy Italian bread. The oil from the pepperoni seeps through the bread to stain the bottom crust a distinctive rusty orange.
Giuseppe Argiro, a former miner, is said to have invented the pepperoni roll as a handy, portable food for coal miners to take in their lunch pails, Heffner said. Argiro passed his recipe down to his son Frank, who owned Country Club Bakery in Fairmont until 1997, where they still follow his recipe.
West Virginia came close to losing its commercially produced pepperoni rolls in 1987 when the U.S. Department of Agriculture moved to reclassify pepperoni roll bakeries as meat packers, making them subject to expensive meat-packing standards. Most of the small, family-owned bakeries could not afford the changes.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va, came to the rescue, and contacted officials in the Agriculture Department. Pepperoni is USDA inspected and sliced before it comes to the bakeries. The bakeries were permitted to continue to bake their pepperoni rolls.
That was great news to pepperoni roll lovers, like Joani Heater, Robert Shields and Greg Scolapio who all stopped by D'Annunzio's Bakery for a bread or roll fix recently. Owner Chris D'Annunzio was pulling freshly baked pepperoni rolls out of the oven. He usually has them coming out of the oven on the hour, so customers get a warm roll.
"I've been eating these all my life and I still have trouble stopping after two or three," D'Annunzio said.
D'Annunzio follows the same recipe his great-grandfather used when he opened Health Bread Co. in its current Clarksburg North View location 83 years ago. Specializing in Italian bread, pizza shells, rolls and buns, D'Annunzio's supplies local restaurants as well as drop-by customers.
"You should be here on a Sunday morning after 11 o'clock Mass," said D'Annunzio. "They're lining the sidewalk waiting to get bread to have with their Sunday dinners." The neighborhood is still home to many Italian families.
Greg Scolapio's grandparents lived near D'Annunzio's, and he remembers standing in those Sunday morning lines. Today, he and his family live in his grandparents' home. He puts his young daughter Ava in the stroller and walks to D'Annunzio's for Italian bread, or "cake" as she calls it, and pepperoni rolls.
"I guess there's a certain form of nostalgia to coming here," Scolapio said. "A lot of us came here as kids, and now we're adults bringing our kids here."
Just a few miles east of D'Annunzio's bakery is their chief rival for Clarksburg's Italian bread market, Tomaro's bakery in Glen Elk. Both bakeries were founded by the current owners' great-grandfathers and both produce pepperoni rolls for about $1.30 each.
"They're great for kids or for hunters to take out with them," D'Annunzio said. "For $1.29, that's a pretty good meal."
Fans of Colasessano's in Fairmont say it's an even better meal when topped with sauce, peppers and cheese, then "toasted to perfection," as the menu claims. Colasessano's also bakes their own buns and breads, but offer them on sandwiches and hoagies in two full-service restaurant locations.
An 8-inch pepperoni bun with everything costs $4. They will reluctantly sell you a plain one for $1.75, "but you really have to try it toasted with everything," the clerk urges.
Despite their Mountain State origins, pepperoni rolls have an international following, at least on Heffner's Web site. Heffner receives e-mails daily from people throughout the United States and abroad containing memories of pepperoni rolls and requests for a shipment. He doesn't make or ship them, but thinks a bakery that shipped would be profitable.
"It amazes me when I hear the stories from people who have moved away from West Virginia. They remember pepperoni rolls fondly - like it was yesterday," Heffner said. "They usually had a specific bakery where they bought and ate them, or a grandmother who made them on a chilly autumn day. Their memories are so vivid over such a simple thing."
Reach Julie Robinson at jul...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1230.
Pepperoni roll country
Colasessano's, 506 Pennsylvania Ave., Fairmont, or in the Middle Town Mall. 304-363-9713
Country Club Bakery, 1211 Country Club Road, Fairmont. 304-363-5690.
D'Annunzio's or Health Bread Co., 1909 Williams Ave., Clarksburg. (304) 622-3492
Tomaro's Bakery, 411 N. Fourth St., Clarksburg. 304-622-0691
Taste test ends in dead heat
On our foray into pepperoni roll country, we visited the four bakeries whose names were most frequently mentioned when we asked where we could find good pepperoni rolls.
In Clarksburg, visit D'Annunzio's and Tomaro's. Stop by Country Club and Colasessano's in Fairmont. Alas, Country Club Bakery was closed the day of our great pepperoni roll run (they're closed on Wednesdays), so our taste test does not include rolls from there.
Yes, we know there are other bakeries, and I'm sure we missed someone's favorite, but we only had a couple of hours to complete this important assignment. Clearly, not enough time to seriously research the subject.
We purchased pepperoni rolls to bring back to the office for a blind taste test. Nothing could possibly compare to the warm rolls we devoured fresh from the oven, but our tasters made do with the warmed-over samples.
In an odd coincidence on the evening I returned home, I found bags of Rogers and Mazzas pepperoni rolls that we purchased for a high school fundraiser. These rolls are made for the long haul. They're individually wrapped with a dough that contains preservatives to increase the shelf life. You'll find them in convenience stores, Wal-Mart, Sam's and Perdue Grocery at the Capitol Market. I tossed a few of them in with our other samples.
The testers were a mix of native West Virginians (two from Marion County) and out-of-staters. Several had not heard of pepperoni rolls until they moved here.
The first-place votes were almost evenly split between D'Annunzios and Rogers and Mazzas, two very different tasting rolls.
Most everyone agreed that D'Annunzio's and Tomaro's produced remarkably similar rolls, but gave D'Annunzio's the edge. One of the Fairmont natives paid them the ultimate compliment, saying that they tasted like Country Club rolls. Everyone liked the chewy dough with its crispy outer edge. Several commented on the spicy, good-quality pepperoni.
Fans of Rogers and Mazzas liked the moist, slightly sweet dough that contrasted with slices of zippy pepperoni, although they would have preferred it to be cut into sticks.
Make your own at home...
The Italian bakery owners aren't about to divulge their pepperoni roll recipes, although Chris D'Anunnzio said the dough is the same recipe he uses for his Italian bread loaves. If you want to try your hand at making pepperoni rolls, but don't have much time, the Rhodes frozen dinner roll dough provides a quick jumpstart. Just thaw the rolls as instructed, insert some pepperoni sticks, then let the rolls rise and bake as directed.
The mouth-watering smell of my mother's pepperoni rolls baking is a treasured childhood memory. Later, she baked them for us to take to Mountaineer football tailgates, and I'll never forget the how good they tasted on cold game days washed down with warm tomato soup we'd spoon from thermoses.
Mom followed the basic roll recipe in Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and added pepperoni sticks before the second rising. If you don't like a slightly sweet dough, cut back on the sugar.
Pepperoni Rolls
Makes about 24 rolls.
41/4 to 43/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, margarine, or shortening
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 beaten eggs
2 sticks pepperoni, peeled and cut into 3- to 4-inch sticks
STIR together in a large mixing bowl 2 cups of the flour and the yeast. In a medium saucepan heat and stir milk, sugar, butter and salt just until warm (120 to 130 degrees F) and butter almost melts. Add milk mixture to dry mixture along with eggs. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed for 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl constantly. Beat on high speed 3 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can.
TURN DOUGH out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (6 to 8 minutes total). Shape the dough into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl; turn once. Cover; let rise in a warm place until double (about 1 hour).
PUNCH dough down. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half. Cover; let rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, lightly grease baking sheets.
SHAPE the dough into small balls and wrap around a stick of pepperoni. Place rolls on prepared baking sheets. Cover and let rise in a warm place until nearly double in size (about 30 minutes).
BAKE in a 375 degree F oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden.
REMOVE rolls from pans. Cool on wire racks.
Source: Adapted from betterhomesandgarden.com
Ann Staats' Pepperoni Rolls
This recipe was submitted by someone who clipped it from a 1978 edition of the Huntington Herald Dispatch. The reader follows the recipe to make the pepperoni rolls at least once a year and said they are the best she's ever had. The original recipe was submitted by Ann Staats of Huntington.
Makes 24 rolls
2 sticks pepperoni
1 cup buttermilk (lukewarm)
1/2 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 packet of yeast
3 tablespoons shortening
2 1/2 - 2 3/4 cups flour
Melted butter
GRIND pepperoni sticks. Set aside.
COMBINE buttermilk, soda, sugar and salt. Stir in yeast until dissolved. Add shortening.
BLEND in enough flour, just until easy to handle. Knead dough.
PLACE in a greased bowl. Cover. Put in a warm place to rise, until double in size. Punch down. Knead again.
DIVIDE dough into 18 pieces. Flatten pieces and place a mound of ground pepperoni on top. Fold dough over pepperoni.
PLACE, folded side down, in a greased pan. Let rise until almost double, about 45 minutes.
BAKE in preheated oven until golden brown 15 to 20 minutes Remove and brush tops with melted butter.
... Or shop around
Readers' e-mail responses to our request for their favorite spot for pepperoni rolls netted the expected recommendations for north-central West Virginia bakeries, but a few were out of the 'roni roll beltway.
Kanawha County: Several readers extolled the virtues of the pepperoni rolls at Montrose Elementary School's cafeteria. I don't know if they're any different from the rolls served at other schools, but the memory of pepperoni roll day in my grade school is still enough to make my mouth water.
Risin' Dough Bakery on Charleston's West Side makes a slightly sweet, dense pepperoni roll.
Wheeling: Bob Rine recommends Greco's, 45 Washington Ave., where they make their dough every day and roll out a thin crust. They add pepperoni and cheese, then bake them. Hot out of the oven, they're brushed with garlic butter and seasoned Parmesan cheese. They're served with homemade marinara sauce for dipping.
Pocahontas County: Someone wrote to say that Grandpa's Pantry located near Mill Point, makes great pepperoni rolls to which they add cheese and sauce.
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To feed an entire football team (middle school) - this method worked great (economically and taste tests) It was a great "snack mom idea" for the boys to eat on the way to the game.
I use the same method for packing lunches and when we are lucky enough to have WVU televised down here!
Let's goooooo Mountaineeeeeers!!!!!!