Stromboli

Foods that include major food groups all in one are often at the heart of meals that are quick and easy. And when the main ingredients are store-bought, well, that’s just a bonus.

On a recent trip through Instagram, I ran across a reel by Giada De Laurentiis, and she was making Stromboli. As Italian as it sounds, with Giada demonstrating it, and with pizza dough and mozzarella in it, imagine my surprise when I read (in more than one source, I might add) that Stromboli is claimed to have been ‘invented’ by an Italian-American in Philadelphia! True, his inspiration my have been somewhere in his DNA, but Philadelphia gets to claim it. Regardless, it oozes all the warmth, flavor, and hominess that we associate with Italian foods.

My recipe is my take on Giada’s, and its simplicity totally advances the theme of her show, “Everyday Italian”. Let’s make this!

INGREDIENTS

1 lb pizza dough (store-bought is fine, regular or whole wheat, and it is usually packaged as a 1-pound package) (see NOTES)
8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese (this is usually the size for shredded mozzarella, but if there’s more, well, is there such a thing?)
7 ozs prosciutto, thinly sliced (thinly sliced ham works just as well)
1 cup torn baby spinach (but you don’t have to tear it, and for sure you don’t have to be exact as to the quantity)
Olive oil
Kosher salt for seasoning

DIRECTIONS

Position an oven rack in the lower 1/3 of the oven,, and preheat oven to 425 deg..
On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the pizza dough to a 12″ to 14″ diameter circle, about 1/4″ thick.
Sprinkle 1/2 of the mozzarella over the dough.
Arrange the prosciutto (or ham) over the cheese in a single layer.
Sprinkle with the spinach.
Top with the remaining mozzarella.
Take one end of the circle and roll the dough up into a thin cylinder, gently folding the ends under with the seam side down.
Brush the dough with olive oil and season with the salt.

NOTES

On a whim, I decided to try some Pillsbury Classic Pizza Crust, to see if it performed as well as the more tradtional dough. It did, but a couple of items merit attention. First, the dough comes in a rectangular shape, not round. I decided not to force the issue, and rolled and stretched the dough intoa rectangle about 12″ x 14″. Add the cheese, prosciutto (ham), and spinach as you would otherwise, leaving a small margin on the left and right. Roll as set out above, then tuck the ends under. Second, the dough seemed to brown quite readily, so about 1/3 into the cooking I put a tented piece of foil over it to keep it from overcooking.