We love our weekly homemade pizza that is totally from scratch. I make 2 “balls” of crust dough and freeze one so I don’t have to make dough every week. It comes out of the freezer the day before I make pizza so that it can thaw and start to rise in the fridge.
But every once in a while I like to think about other things I can do with the whole process. I’ve been contemplating calzones but haven’t made any yet. The other night though I decided to go in a different direction and make Stromboli.
A basic Google search and reading of some online articles told me that there’s not much difference between calzones and Stromboli. Some suggest that there’s sauce in Stromboli and none in calzone which is also supposed to be a little heavier in cheese. And some articles aid that Stromboli is rolled like a “jelly roll” and others said that it’s folded over.
Yeah, yeah, yadda yadda. Let’s just put it this way. To my way of thinking, calzone is like a baked turnover of a disk of dough stuffed with toppings then folded and crimped before baking. Stromboli is rolled up and can be eaten either in “hunks” or sliced for an appetizer type of dish—great for parties or pot lucks.
There’s only one thing that matters—it’s really, really tasty! So here’s Cheap Bastid’s first-ever try at Stromboli which turned out pretty fantastic, if I do say so myself.
Recipe: Homemade Stromboli
Summary: Here’s a different twist on pizza–Stromboli! It’s great for dinner or appetizers or parties.
Ingredients
- 1 recipe of pizza crust (http://www.cheap-bastid-cooks.com/homemade-pizza/) or a 1 lb “ball”
- 1 8 oz can tomato sauce
- ½ cup shredded cheese (mozzarella, mozzarella/cheddar mix, etc.)
- ¾ cup mixed raw vegetables (onion, bell pepper, jalapeno, zucchini, etc.)
- 4-6 oz. pepperoni (or Italian sausage or
ground beef) - Italian seasoning or other dried herbs like parsley or basil
- ¼ cup milk
Instructions
- Let crust rise to double its original size, gently punch down and let rest for about 10 minutes.
- Cut the raw vegetables and put in a small bowl.
- Take out your bread making board if you have one otherwise use your counter top dusted with flour. Get out a cookie sheet and a rolling pin (preferably a French style). Put a light coat of cooking spray on the cookie sheet and dust with some corn meal if you have it.
- Flour your hands ad remove the dough
from its bowl and then gently stretch it out just a bit so that it forms a disc about 8 inches or so across. - Put the dough down on your bread board, dust your rolling pin and roll the dough out to a rectangle that’s about 14 x 12 inches. Dough will be a bit less than ¼ inch thick. Then let the dough sit for about 5 minutes. Re-size the dough after it’s rested.
- Use a brush or back of a table spoon to lightly paint the crust with the sauce—leave about ½ inch “unpainted” around the edges.
- Put the pepperoni down in one layer than spread the vegetables over the top, sprinkle the Italian seasoning over this and finish with the cheese.
- Now, reach across the crust and gently roll the crust towards you along the “long end” as tightly as you can without squishing the crust.
- Move the Stromboli to the cookie sheet and use your brush to paint a light coating of milk on top of it. Then sprinkle a nice coating of cheese on top.
- Turn on oven to 375 and set the Stromboli on top of the stove covered with a towel until the oven is warmed up. Then put the Stromboli in the pre-heated oven for about 20-25 minutes or until it’s a gorgeous golden brown.
- Put the rest of the tomato sauce in small bowls for dipping.
- Remove Stromboli from oven. Let it cool down for 5-10 minutes (if you have the patience because this is going to look and smell fantastic). Then cut it into 1” slices or 3-4” hunks.
Preparation time: 15 minute(s)
Cooking time: 25 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 4
It’s that simple. It’s something a little bit different. You can do this for dinner for 2. You can do this as an appetizer or you can do it as party food. It’s all good. And it’s homemade. It’s Stromboli!
The Cheap Bastid Test: The crust costs about $.50 in ingredients. You use about $.75 worth of pepperoni, $.25 in vegetables and $.75 in cheese. I buy tomato sauce in 8 oz. cans at 3 for $1—so you spend $.33. Total Cost: $2.58. At a pizza joint this would cost $8-$10! And you just made it at home for two and a half bucks.
That’s the Cheap Bastid Way: Eat Good. Eat Cheap. Be Grateful!
Great idea and looks delicious.
For supper the night before our second child was born, I made a similar-shaped thing, except that it was a rolled-up sort of reuben concoction: Thousand Island instead of pizza sauce, drained sauerkraut and sauted onions, pastrami, swiss cheese. Anyway, being hugely pregnant and already in labor, I wasn’t very successful at wrestling the completed roll onto the cookie sheet, the ends flared, and that recipe has been known for a quarter century as “The Giant Dog Bone Mom Cooked The Night Kate Was Born.” Bottom line: As I haven’t yet lived down that failure, I vote for folded stromboli. 🙂
Thanks for all your wonderful recipes. You are an inspiration.
Suzy, thanks this was our laugh of the morning (I just read it to Mrs. CB). We’ve all got a story like that and yours is delightful. But–I really like the idea of doing a “reuben stromboli”. I’ve also thought that a Philly cheese stromboli would be pretty good too. And maybe even a pulled pork BBQ stromboli. Plus, folded stromboli works for me just fine. The “jelly roll” thing can be a bit “chancey” whether you’re doing stromboli or cinnamon rolls. Thanks again.