Pepperoni Stromboli
On several Christmas eves over the years when we lived in Arizona, our next-door neighbors would knock on the door with a warm loaf of “pizza bread” stuffed with pepperoni and cheese. It was the perfect treat, especially at that stage in our lives with young kids and ensuing holiday madness. Some time during those years, back when I subscribed to the long-defunct Family Fun magazine, I came across a recipe for Inside-Out Pizza Bread that looked to be similar. I then started making “pizza bread” during the Christmas break when my kids were young and continued when we moved to Washington. I hadn’t made it in years, but for whatever reason post-Christmas this year my husband kept sprinkling the conversation with the word “stromboli.” The stromboli gods had spoken. Time to bring out the pepperoni pizza bread of yesteryear.
I could picture the magazine page that I’d torn out of a Family Fun issue and knew it was basically the same as stromboli, which is much more fun to say.
But I couldn’t remember if I’d ever ordered stromboli at a restaurant. I had a memory from long ago of visiting Seabrook, Washington and eating at a pizza joint. I looked it up and sure enough, Frontagers Pizza has stromboli on the menu.
My search for the recipe took about 10 seconds. Yes, I’m that organized. Not really. It’s more that I could picture it stuffed into an old blue binder of unorganized, miscellaneous recipes and luckily I did know where the binder was.
Pizza Bread aka Stromboli
Dough Ingredients
1 ¼ cups warm water (105 – 115 degrees F)
1 package (2 ¼ tsp active dry yeast)
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp olive oil
1 ½ tsp kosher salt
3 to 3 ¼ cups unbleached AP flour (I used King Arthur 00 flour)
Filling Ingredients
3 tsp dried basil
1.4 pound thinly sliced pepperoni
1 1/2 to 2 cups mozzarella
Instructions
The recipe is written as a step-by-step guide to teaching kids to cook. As such, it’s pretty simple.
Measure water in a large mixing bowl. (I don’t trust “warm to the touch” so I heated water from my fridge to just under 115 degrees,, or you can test with a thermometer.) Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let it dissolve most of the way. Then add the sugar and olive oil. Whisk together, let it sit for 5 minutes.
Next, stir the salt into the yeast mixture. Add 2 cups of the flour and beat well with a wooden spoon until it comes together. Add the rest of the flour ¼ cup at a time. I stopped at 3 cups and scraped the dough out onto a well-floured surface.
Then you knead the dough for 7 minutes until it’s springy and no longer sticky. I kept flouring the surface and patting the dough with a floured hand. Form the dough into a ball.
Then oil a medium-large glass bowl with olive oil. Place the dough into the bowl and flip it over so the dough is oiled on all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise for 1 hour. I always use the Proof cycle on my oven; works great.
Looking festive, a pepperoni stromboli with marinara sauce.
Marinara Sauce
In the meantime, make your marinara sauce. Or you can certainly heat a store-bought jar of marinara or pizza sauce on the stove top. I randomly decided to use this (simple!) recipe for Simple Spicy Marinara from Diane Morrissey and roughly halved it as written below.
Ingredients
1 28-ounce can good quality crushed tomatoes (plus 1/2 can of water that you’ve stirred all the tomato residue in the can with)
1 6-oz can tomato paste
1/8 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves chopped
1/4- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (to your level of desired spiciness)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Pinch of sugar
3-4 basil leaves (I used about 6 leaves, chopped into slivers
In a pot over medium heat, heat the oil and add garlic. When the garlic begins to sizzle and you begin to smell it, add the tomatoes, tomato paste and the water. Add the red pepper flakes, pinch of sugar, salt and basil. Stir, bring to a boil and reduce to simmer for 20 minutes or longer.
Back to the Pizza Dough
Prepare a large baking sheet with cornmeal or parchment paper.
Punch down the dough a couple times and dump it out onto a floured surface. Knead for 1 minute. Cover with the oiled plastic wrap and let it rest for 10 minutes.
Press dough into a large rectangle and roll it to about 12” by 14”.
Brush with a little water, sprinkle dried basil over it. You could also use Italian seasoning or add oregano. Arrange the pepperoni (I used a 5 oz package) overlapping, leaving about an inch border. I used fresh mozzarella and just tore it up and laid over the pepperoni. You could grate mozzarella or use another cheese of your choice. I also went over the entire rectangle with a dusting of grated fresh parmesan.
Then starting with the longest edge, roll up the pepperoni bread. Pinch the seam and the ends, tucking them under a bit. Place onto the baking pan diagonally so it fits. Using a large bench scraper helps with the lifting.
Let the dough rest again for about 15 mintues while you preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Remove the plastic and bake the bread for 35 minutes until browned and crusty all over. Place on a wire rack and let cool for 20 minutes. You need to do this to make it easy to slice. Using a serrated bread knife, cut into slices about an inch or slightly thicker.
The outside …
… the inside!
Eat up!
Serve your stromboli with marinara sauce for dipping. A side salad and a glass of wine make it a meal. Or just dip and munch while watching football and repeating the word “stromboli” over and over.👩🍳😘