Stromboli

Stromboli is one of my all time favorites. One of the great things about Stromboli is that you can put just about anything you like in it. This is a quick and easy Stromboli that we will use prepared ingredients for. I could give you recipes for dough and sauce and such but these things take time and it seems that time is always short so if you can speed up the process and have a good product...why not?  The dough for Stromboli is a basic pizza dough but today we are going to use a frozen bread dough. The best thing to do is plan ahead and pull the bread dough the night before and let it thaw in the refrigerator overnight. Then when you are ready your dough will be ready too. One loaf will make 4 individual Stromboli and that's the recipe we will do today. Here's what you will need:

Frozen bread dough                                                           1 loaf
Pizza sauce                                                                        3/4 cup
Canadian bacon, cut in strips                                              5 ounces
Pepperoni, cut in strips                                                       2 ounces
Colby-Jack Cheese                                                             6 ounces
Red or yellow bell pepper, cut in strips                                1 each
Yellow onion, cut in strips                                                   1/2 cup


Lets start with the dough, cut the loaf in 4 equal pieces and on a clean dry work surface with a little flour start flattening them out one at a time with the heel of your palm. After you get them kind of flat you can pick up the dough and start stretching it, turning it in a circular motion so as to keep it even and somewhat round. If it gets sticky just add a little more flour. And if your brave enough you can even give it a spinning toss in the air. Careful don't drop it on the floor! Anyway stretch them out to about 8 inches in diameter, dust a cookie sheet with a little flour and lay them out on it. Cover them with a clean dish cloth and let them sit for about an hour. They will rise a little and should get a little puffy. Now lets cut the pepper and onion and saute it in a little olive oil or butter. Cook until just crisp tender, remove from heat and reserve for later. Next cut the meats into strips, you could leave it whole but cutting it makes it easier to eat.
After the dough rises a little it's time to build the Stromboli. Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet or pizza pan with pan spray, uncover the dough  and start with the sauce. I used about 3 Tbsp per crust and you want to place it in the middle of your dough. Split the rest of the ingredients evenly between the 4 crusts. You will want to layer it. I did Canadian bacon, about half the cheese, pepperoni, peppers and onions and the other half of the cheese. Now fold in the ends, pull one side of the dough up and over the top, tuck it in a little and roll the Stromboli so that the seam will be on the bottom. Move it to the sprayed pan and do the others. Kind of looks like a burrito. Cut a couple of slits in the top of the dough, brush lightly with olive oil and it's ready to bake. These took about 17 minutes for me. I set my timer for 12 minutes, when it went off I turned the pan and set the timer for another 5 minutes. They came out hot and a nice golden brown. You can use what ever type of meat and cheese in these that you would prefer. You could even make them a vegetarian dish if you like. What ever your choices may be I'm sure this is something that you will find very satisfying. Serve it up with a nice green salad and a little sauce on the side and you're going to make everyone happy. Enjoy!!!