In English, pepperoni refers to a spicy Italian-American variety of dry salami made of pork, beef, and often veal. Pepperoni is a descendant of the spicy salamis of Southern Italy, such as salsiccia Napoletana piccante, a spicy dry pork sausage from Naples. Pepperoni is frequently used as a pizza topping in American-style pizzerias. It is the most popular pizza topping in North America.

Pepperoni is a corruption of peperoni, the Italian plural of peperone, referring to the bell pepper, so that ordering "peperoni" pizza in Italy is often an unwelcome surprise for North American tourists. To order the American version of pepperoni in Italy, one would request salame piccante (spicy salami, generally typical of Calabria). Throughout continental Europe, peperone is a common word for various types of capsicum including bell pepper and a small, spicy and often pickled pepper known as peperone piccante in Italy and sometimes as pepperoncini in the US. Unlike in Europe, the English word is used as a singular uncountable noun.

See also

• Sausage

Cold cut | Sausages

Pepperoni | Peperoncino | Pepperoni | Pepperoni | Pepperoni