Well, that was quick. After weeks of speculation about how long it would take to count the votes, former President Donald Trump clinched it overnight. Maybe you’re celebrating or commiserating with leftover election cake. But if you prefer to stop up your emotional arteries with fat instead of sugar, might I suggest a roni roll?
Last week, Danny Palumbo paid homage to this unassuming lunch staple, popular in his hometown of New Castle, Pennsylvania. “Something transcendent happens when slices of deli pepperoni are baked into a soft Italian loaf,” Danny writes. “The meat’s salt and fat seep into the bread, staining it a wonderful greasy orange.”
Danny tracks down the best iterations of the dish all over the region, beginning with the original, invented by Giuseppe Argiro, a Sicilian immigrant and former West Virginian coal miner, in 1927. The roni roll has deep ties to Appalachia’s working-class history, and Danny turns up its kin across the Rust Belt’s mining communities, like the pasty in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and the piggies (stuffed cabbage rolls) preferred by coal crackers in northeastern Pennsylvania.
At first I thought the roni roll was evidence of a time before the Appalachian coal mining industry crumbled and manufacturing corporations pulled out of Rust Belt towns. The dish — and any lingering nostalgia for it — seemed like a natural fit in a narrative about Trump’s 2016 ascension, his selection of Mr. Appalachia JD Vance as running mate, and his win this time around. Though Vice President Kamala Harris also made a play for working-class voters in the region, the former president capitalized on a feeling among blue-collar residents (across demographic groups) that they have been deserted by CEOs and overlooked by political leaders.
“There is that sense of abandonment, unfortunately,” Danny said, when I asked him about this. “I see it everywhere [in New Castle]. You can feel it.” But, he added, “In Pennsylvania, I’m not so sure the pepperoni roll symbolizes the days of coal mines or steel mills. It’s absolutely a food for the entirety of the working class.”
