Stromboli - the generic kind

Stromboli is one of my favorite foods to make for a party. It's also just really good for dinner. My husband's cousin expects it every time he sees me, which is fine since it takes about 0% of my brain activity to make it. I totally ripped this recipe off a friend of mine who is known for it, so I have to be careful where I actually bring this to, but she gladly showed me how to make it so it's her own damn fault.

You can use the Pillsbury tube of pizza dough or any store bought pizza dough. I'm cheap and I have a bread machine, so I made my own out of:

2 cups flour
3/4 cup water
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp yeast

You can double that and freeze half of it for later. I find the above is just enough to make a huge stromboli and give my kids a wad of dough to roll out for fun.

Roll out the dough (or unroll if you're rolling Pillsbury style) with a rolling pin until it's spread out nicely. You want it to look like you're making a thin crust pizza.

The next ingredient is PORK. I would specify but there's no need to do that. Salami, pepperoni, cooked bacon, ham, mortadella, capicola, prosciutto, bologna, whatever, use it. I tend to use what I have laying around, like if I bought stuff for sandwiches then I can use that. I bought a ridiculous amount of pepperoni from Costco like four months ago so I tend to have that lying around since I froze it in about 19 individual bags. I had some ham for this as well. No matter what meat you use, just make sure it's cooked. Putting raw bacon inside of stromboli would be hard to cut and completely disastrous. Cover the entire sheet of dough with a nice layer or two or four of PORK.

Cover the PORK with cheese. You don't need to pile it on like you would a pizza. Remember that when this sucker gets rolled up, it will be oozing and too much cheese = too much ooze. Just a nice thin layer of shredded mozzarella or whatever. If you have sliced provolone that's perfect too. There is no wrong way to do this.

Then I like to add something spicy because, well, apparently I lost my taste buds in the war. Don't ask which war, because I won't tell you. For this one, I improvised some giardiniera out of chopped green olives, sport pepper and shredded carrots. I've used roasted red peppers, black olives, mushrooms, etc. All you want is a thin line of the relish-y stuff down the middle of the stromboli. Don't spread it all out all over the whole thing or the flavor will be overwhelming. Just a little bite of it is good.

You can sprinkle crushed red pepper or parmesan on the inside, too. I usually do.

Next, roll up the whole thing. To seal it, press the dough along the side. Carefully put the tube on a sprayed baking sheet and spray the tube with Pam or olive oil or something. I like to sprinkle oregano on top, just because it's pretty. I'm almost positive it adds absolutely nothing to the flavor. It might get you a few extra "ahhhhhhh"s when you pull it out of the oven for an audience.

If you can manage to wait, let it rest for 5 minutes. You'll thank me when you slice it up.

Nutritional Information:
4 servings
Calories per serving: 570
Total fat: 27.3 g
Saturated fat: 12.8 g
Cholesterol: 93.8 mg
Sodium: 1886.3 mg
Potassium: 105 mg
Carbs: 50 g
Fiber: 1.5 g
Sugars: 8 g
Protein: 31.7 g
Vitamin A: 9%
Vitamin C: 0%
Calcium: 30%
Iron: 20.5%