Soft Italian bread baked around whole-stick or sliced pepperoni and provolone, eaten warm from the bakery counter. A Strip District grab-and-go staple of Appalachian-Italian origin.
Where to eat it: 2 restaurants across 1 city.
The pepperoni roll spread from the West Virginia coalfields into western Pennsylvania's Italian bakeries, where pepperoni and cheese are baked inside a soft bread roll. In Pittsburgh's Strip District, Jimmy & Nino Sunseri became famous for an oversized two-pound version stuffed with house pepperoni, mozzarella and provolone. The rolls are sold warm from bakery counters as a portable lunch with deep Appalachian-Italian roots.
Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy
Tip from the editors. Seal the seam well and bake seam-side down so the cheese does not leak out as it melts.
This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.
Jimmy & Nino Sunseri is a third-generation Italian deli in the Strip District in Pittsburgh. Famous for two-pound pepperoni rolls and fresh-baked bread.
Tip: Order the pepperoni roll, the store's signature. Jimmy is the Strip's unofficial greeter.
Mancini's Bread on Penn Avenue in the Strip District has baked Italian bread in Pittsburgh since 1926. The Signature Twist is its most famous loaf.
Worth the queue: Signature Twist loaf
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