Pull-Apart Pepperoni Pizza Sliders

Spring is arriving in its usual tentative Nebraska way: two steps forward, one step back, a sixty-degree day followed by a snowstorm followed by mud followed by something that might be sunshine if you squint. I drove through all of it this week, Grand Island to Omaha and back twice, and the landscape is in that brown-to-green transition that is ugly and hopeful at the same time, like a caterpillar mid-metamorphosis.

The garden bed is waiting. Dave turned the soil last weekend and mixed in compost, and Josie has been watering the empty bed again, which I have stopped correcting because her faith in the watering is kind of beautiful. The seedlings are on the windowsill: tomatoes, peppers, basil. They are reaching for the light the way they did last year, leggy and determined, and I am rooting for them the way I root for everything small that is trying to grow.

I made a spring dinner this week: pan-fried pork chops with an apple cider glaze. Bone-in chops, seared golden in the cast-iron, then I added apple cider, a little Dijon mustard, and fresh thyme, and let the sauce reduce until it was thick and glossy and smelled like an apple orchard and a smokehouse had a baby. Served with mashed potatoes and steamed green beans. It is a bridge meal: warm enough for the cold nights that are still coming, fresh enough for the spring that is trying to arrive. The pork chops were tender. The glaze was sweet and sharp. Dave ate two and said nothing, which from Dave means transcendence.

I called Larry this week. He was on a haul somewhere in Iowa, and he sounded tired, more tired than usual, and I asked him if he was eating and he said yes, which was a lie, and I asked him if he was sleeping and he said yes, which was also a lie, and I asked him when he was coming home and he said next week, which might have been true. The conversation lasted four minutes. That is how truckers talk to each other: short, factual, with the important things living in the gaps between words. Are you okay lives in are you eating. Come home lives in when are you coming. I love you lives in drive safe, which was the last thing I said, and the last thing he said back.

That pork chop dinner carried us through the week, but it got me thinking about the nights when there’s no time for a cast-iron and a reducing glaze — the nights Larry’s voice is still in my ear and Dave is quiet and I just need something warm on the table without a lot of ceremony. These pull-apart pepperoni pizza sliders are that dinner: fifteen minutes of putting things together, the oven does the rest, and suddenly the kitchen smells good and everyone has something to pull apart and eat with their hands, which is its own kind of comfort. Some weeks you make the fancy thing, and some weeks you make the thing that just works.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 30 minutes | Servings: 12 sliders

Ingredients

1 package (12 count) Hawaiian sweet rolls or dinner slider rolls
1/2 cup pizza sauce, plus more for dipping
1 1/2 cups shredded low-moisture mozzarella cheese
3 oz sliced pepperoni (about 40–50 slices)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
Fresh basil or dried parsley, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

Preheat the oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with nonstick spray or a thin coat of butter.
Slice the rolls. Without separating the individual rolls, use a serrated knife to cut the entire slab of rolls in half horizontally so you have one large top and one large bottom. Place the bottom half in the prepared baking dish.
Add the sauce. Spread the pizza sauce evenly over the cut side of the bottom half of rolls, going all the way to the edges.
Layer the fillings. Sprinkle 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese over the sauce. Lay the pepperoni slices in an even layer over the cheese. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup of mozzarella over the pepperoni.
Top the sliders. Place the top half of the rolls back on, pressing down gently to compact the layers slightly.
Make the butter topping. In a small bowl, stir together the melted butter, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and red pepper flakes if using. Brush the mixture generously over the tops of the rolls, letting it soak into the surface. Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese evenly over the top.
Bake covered. Cover the baking dish tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 15 minutes, until the cheese is fully melted and the rolls are warmed through.
Uncover and finish. Remove the foil and bake an additional 4–5 minutes until the tops are golden and slightly crisp at the edges.
Serve. Garnish with fresh basil or dried parsley if desired. Pull apart and serve immediately with extra pizza sauce on the side for dipping.

Nutrition (per serving)

Pull-Apart Pepperoni Pizza Sliders — A Warm, No-Fuss Dinner for Tired Weeks