Pepperoni

Pepperoni is a  variety of salami (a dry sausage) usually made from   and, but  may be added, if labeled correctly, for less expensive versions. Pepperoni is characteristically soft, slightly smoky, and bright red in color. It is a descendant of the spicy salamis of, such as salsiccia Napoletana piccante, a spicy dry sausage from , or the soppressata from , but unlike these sausages it is smoked and has a finer grain. , used as a curing agent, is what gives pepperoni the pink part of its distinct orange-pink color, while or other capsicum provides the orange part. Thinly sliced pepperoni is a popular topping in American-style. Also, it is sometimes used to make.

The term pepperoni is a of peperoni, the  of peperone, the  word for  (the fruit, not the spice). The first reference using pepperoni to refer to a sausage dates to 1919. Throughout, peperone is a common word for various types of capsicum, including s and a small, spicy and often pickled pepper known as  or peperone piccante in Italy and peperoncini or banana peppers in the U.S. Unlike in Europe, the word pepperoni is used as a.

To order a very similar food in, one would request salamino piccante to get a spicy sausage made only of pork and beef. Usually the Italian name for a pepperoni pizza is pizza alla diavola (pizza devil-style, very similar in appearance to the pepperoni pizza). Asking for a pizza with "salamino piccante calabro" or "spianata calabra" (hot salami typical of Calabria, generally made in large cylinders of meat, slightly flattened in the case "spianata") one could get a pizza covered with large slices of salami instead of the slices of hot sausage. The original salami from Calabria can be much spicier than American pepperoni or other types of Italian spicy sausages.

or pepperoni may be made from beef or poultry.