Stromboli

By Paul Briand

I happened to catch a recent airing of "The Phantom Gourmet" -- a regional television program that reviews restaurants and talks about good food in New England.

The program did a piece on pizza joints with a sidebar about Stromboli. I got inspired then and there to make a Stromboli for my dinner table.

A Stromboli is a type of Italian turnover filled with various cheeses, Italian meats such as salami, capicola, and pepperoni, with some vegetables and marinara sauce. The dough is usually Italian bread dough.

I made mine with the ready-made pizza dough you can find at the grocery store, and I filled mine with capicola, pepperoni, cheeses and sauce.

My caveat: I needed more practice spreading the pizza dough. I needed to make it much thinner than it was because once it was all baked it was a little too thick around all that gooey goodness inside.

Ingredients

Store-bought pizza dough

12 slices of capicola (an Italian pork cold cut)

Slices of pepperoni

16 ounces store-bought marinara sauce

Bag of shredded Italian cheese blend

Bag of shredded Mozzarella cheese

1 egg beaten

Directions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees;

2. On a dry, floured work surface, spread the pizza dough using a rolling pin and your hands to as thin as you can without tearing it;

3. Layer the following down the center of the dough: Some marina, several slices of capicola, several slices of pepperoni, a handful of the Italian cheese blend, handful of Mozzarella;

4. Add another layer, then another;

5. Fold the dough over the layers lengthwise, then fold in the ends to create what looks like a long loaf;

6. Use care in turning the loaf over;

7. Use a pastry brush to spread the egg wash over the loaf;

8. Sprinkle with more Mozzarella;

9. Bake until brown and the insides are gooey, about 20 to 25 minutes;

10. Cut in 2-inch slices and serve, using more marinara as a topping.

Print recipe card.