I have to admit sometimes I don’t know until late afternoon. I would like you all to think that I am sooo organized – menu plans, and the like. But it ain’t true. Sometimes, I just get too distracted to think about cooking food. But I do like to mix things up a little. We’re pretty boring, not scads of different recipes but lots of favorites. Thursday is always pizza night, but even pizza gets boring. Even when I worked off the farm, I considered pizza from scratch one of my quick meals. Any recipe I can break the prep time into smaller increments with gaps works great for me. I can mix up pizza dough, set it to rise and go milk or move my cows. Raised dough is actually pretty resilient for the reluctant cook. If I need it fast I put it in a real warm place, slower – a cooler place.
Last week, I decided to try Stromboli instead of pizza. The ingredients are basically the same, just assembled in a different manner. Just like pizza you mix and match ingredients to suit your families needs – making each stromboli a little different, or all alike. And being kind of a messy assembly – it is great recipe for kids to help with.
You could use dough from the store if you are in a hurry. And if you had the vegetables and cheese prepped the night before this is a fairly quick meal and very tasty too. To make my stromboli fast I sauteed my sausage until brown, added a diced onion and a some diced zucchini. When the onions were transparent I added 1 cup of marinara sauce.
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Divide pizza dough into 3 equal parts (or as many as you need.) Roll dough out onto lightly floured board into rectangular shapes. Spread cooked filling on the dough, sprinkle with grated cheese. Roll up starting on the long side, place on parchment or foil-lined jelly roll or baking pan, seam side down. Make several slashes on the top. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes or until golden brown.
Delicious! I can see endless possibilities for filling these, and I think they probably would freeze well too.
Pizza Dough from Fannie Farmer Cookbook, 1979 James Beard edition
1 Tablespoon dry yeast dissolved in 1/3 cup warm water
4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup warm water
2 Tablespoons Olive oil
Combine 3 cups flour, salt, oil and water and yeast mixture, Mix well. Turn out onto floured board and knead in remaining cup of flour. Put in warm place to rise until double in bulk.
This dough can be stretched or rolled out which ever you find the easiest. With just a few ingredients this recipe is easy to remember. Use for pizza or… Enjoy.
Wow! That looks awesome.
Cassandra (drooling)
MMMM, looks good. I usually make regular pizza when I’m in a hurry.
I can’t wait to try your pizza dough. I’ve tried seven different recipes and none of them have worked out really well. I have high hopes!
Those look so good. I’ll have to try those next time I want to mix things up. I usually make calzones when I’m tired of pizza. It’s the same idea – same ingredients, different shape, ends up being a totally different taste.
I make stromboli every year for superbowl and maybe 1-2 other times per year.
I use the frozen bread dough from the store, roll it out into one large circle and fill it with ham, pepperoni, salami, mozzarella, pizza sauce, etc and make one huge stomboli that we slice with a pizza cutter…going to try your way next!
Mmm … stromboli! Looking at your photos, I can almost smell them. I grew up eating a version of this. My teenage son loves stuff like this.
It is like my giant calzones…anything homemade crust and pizza sauce is a winner in my book. Your’s looks yummy! Kim
I like what you said:
“Any recipe I can break the prep time into smaller increments with gaps works great for me. ”
That’s why I think I like sourdough so much. Let the stuff rise for 24 hours!
The stromboli looks wonderful. I do the pizza bit too, but this would be such a nice change. Thanks for a new idea!
Liz
Oh man, you lost me at “roll dough out.” I have this problem with rolling pins. My mom says it’s because she used to chase Daddy out of the kitchen with one so I see it as a torture device. I’ve never had success rolling anything out (maybe a barrel). But your stromboli sure look yummy!
localnourishment, I hated rolling things out until I bought a Pampered Chef rolling pin. You use it one handed and it can get into tight corners. So much better when you’re just starting out.
LN, that is too funny – I use a frying pan
On the hubby I mean!