Stromboli

Stromboli.  The first adventurous thing to be made in our new home.  Despite all the dust and old wall paper that was hanging off the walls and flying through the air of our in-the-middle-of-being-renovated-kitchen, I refused to not use my brand new kitchen to make a delicious dinner.

I was a little nervous about how Stromboli would turn out for me.  I am not too good with things that require a filling inside of dough.  I usually end up over filling it and everything pours out into a big mess.  I guess I got lucky this time, because although it wasn't perfect,  the filling actually stayed inside of the dough.  And it tasted amazing.

The fun things about this is that you can use a variety of fillings.  Things like Philly cheesesteak, buffalo chicken, barbeque pork, and whatever else may sound delicious at the time would also make lovely fillings.  I just went with a traditional stromboli filling, which included Italian sausage, pepperoni, tomato sauce and cheese.

Stromboli.  Marked off the "Tricky things to try and make" list.

Stromboli

Dough recipe from Naturally Ella

For the Dough:

3/4 cup warm water

2 Tbsp sugar

2 Tsp dry active yeast

2 Tsp salt

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 cup flour (+ more as needed for dough and for counter-top kneading)

For the filling:

1/2 lb Italian Sausage

1 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

1/2 cup your favorite tomato sauce

10 slices of large pepperoni/salami

For the outside of the Stromboli:

1/4 cup parmesan cheese, shredded

2 Tbsp butter, melted

1 Tbsp Parsley

1 Tsp dried garlic

salt and pepper

For the dough:

Combine water, sugar and yeast.  Stir together until foamy.  Add salt, oil and 1 cup flour.  Mix with a dough hook, or knead by hand.  Continue to add flour 1/2 cup at a time until dough holds together but is not overly sticky (If using a dough hook-until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl).  Once the right consistency is achieved, mix/knead for about 8-10 more minutes.  Set aside in a warm dark place and let rise for about 45 mins to an hour, until almost doubled in size.  

Mix together all of the filling ingredients in a bowl.  

After dough has risen,  Roll out with a rolling pin into a rectangle that is 16 x 10 with the long edge closest to you.  Leaving about a 1 inch of dough around the edges, add the filling mixture.  Begin rolling the stromboli with the side closest to you.  Roll it up tightly, away from your body.  Once all rolled up, seal the edges and ends by pinching the dough together.  

Brush the melted butter over top of the dough, and sprinkle dried garlic, parsley, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.  Cut about 4 slits in the top of the dough that go through to the filling.  

Bake at 425 degrees on a pizza stone or baking sheet for about 20-30 minutes, until filling is bubbly and dough is golden brown.  

Cool, slice and serve!