Stromboli!

The STROMBOLI will get you!

People, I like simple foods.  Easy, simple, hearty, real food.  Complicated French recipes and processes never fail to frustrate me. I lack anywhere near the amount of patience and attention to detail to master--or even attempt--to make things like, say, puff pastry, pate, delicate sauces like hollandaise, and many other "fussy" foods that, I tell myself, just obscure what it is you're eating.  Instead of puff pastry, I do make a mean biscuit and pie dough.  Pate I'll never make, but the meat grinder I just acquired means I might attempt homemade sausage this year.   Delicate sauces elude me, but I can whip up a super-duper pan sauce, gravy, salsa, browned butter, vinaigrette, and most anything else that doesn't require 10 egg yolks and 3 sticks of butter.

The way I look at it is simple:  I'll never be a chef--I'm a cook.  My occasional dreams of a Cheeky restaurant aren't a high concept dinner place, but rather a casual breakfast/lunch diner spot where anyone feels comfortable and welcome.  Or maybe a specialty food shop that's 1/2 packaged gourmet goodies and 1/2 soups, sandwiches, salads, and small apps/entrees that you can buy and eat there or carry out to enjoy elsewhere. But really, my aspiration at this point is just to cook good food, eat good food, and write about good food. In Reggie's immortal words, "F. O. O. D., food food. / G. O. O. D., good good."

The point is...I know my skills, I know my limits, and I know what I like.  My food ethos is that it should make you feel sated, comfortable, and at home.  Other people can be innovative, border-pushing, and complex.  I'm approachable, simple, and (hopefully) good.

The downside to simplicity is creativity.  Sometimes I'm not the most creative cook.  I make my favorite recipes and dishes over and over again.  I don't always rush to try new techniques and ideas.  So when faced with a pound of pizza dough the other night, I sought to think in a dimension other than a circle.  Apparently, my science-y Discover magazine influenced my brain that day, because I took a circle literally to the next dimension--a cylinder.  Yes, people, I rolled up a pizza into...well, what is it?  A pizza log?  A calzone?  How about...a stromboli!

I could also have called it a pizza volcano. 

I'm calling it a stromboli because that word is just so darn funny.  It reminds me of an evil, portly Italian villain in a 1970s cartoon or something equally bizarre, not a giant hot-pocket (A's word for last night's dinner, which just reminds me of the Jim Gaffigan bit).  But weirdness aside, it was a nice variation on an overused pizza theme.  While we both agreed that, in a title bout, pizza would come out as the undisputed champion, this is a nice alternative, and much more convenient that starting a pizza from the kneading dough stage (where, my friends, I pretty much invariably start it). And giving another name to a similar dish means I'm not eating pizza as much...right?  Right...?

All sliced up, before belly time. 

When I made it, I stretched the dough as if for a regular thin crust pizza, just in a squarish shape.  I spread with sauce, leaving a good border all around, then topped with a slightly different strategy than with regular pizza.  I went heavy on the sauce and veggies, perhaps a bit more pepperoni than normal, but less cheese than I otherwise would have used.  The stromboli wasn't as puffy as I would have liked it, a fact perhaps due to my rolling it too thin.  I'll keep it thicker next time, and let it have a longer rise before freezing.

It won't replace pizza, friends, but it's an interesting variation.  What I liked most about it was that it survived my freezing experiment, and went straight from the freezer to oven to belly with great success!  Click to see a basic, variable recipe.  Oh, and an awesome recipe for Grilled Vegetable Salad with Creamy Feta Vinaigrette, glimpsed in the photo above, is also coming soon.


Supreme Stromboli
Serves 2-4, depending how much of it you eat.

1 lb pizza dough (make your own or get from a reputable place--don't use the canned dough!)
1/2 cup pizza sauce
pepperoni
diced green pepper
diced red onion
sliced mushrooms
crushed red pepper
1 cup mozzerella cheese
2 Tbsp parmesan cheese

Roll out pizza dough into a large rectangle, or until 1/4" thick.  Spread evenly with sauce, leaving a 1" border on three sides. Scatter veggies and other toppings evenly over sauced portion, then cover with cheeses.  Sprinkle with crushed red pepper.

Starting at edge closest to you (the one with the sauce all the way to it), fold about 1" to 2" of dough over onto itself, then gently roll the entire rectangle into a long log, tucking in and sealing the ends when almost to the other side.  Dip your finger in water and rub onto the remaining edge, then pull it up and against the log and pinch seam together until sealed.

Place seam-side down on a parchment-lined pan and allow to rise for 1-2 hours.  Brush the top with olive oil and sprinkle with coarse salt.  Slit 3-4 times with a serrated knife to allow steam to escape.  Either bake immediately (15 or so minutes at 400) or freeze (flash freeze it on the pan for 30 minutes, then remove, wrap tightly in plastic wrap & foil and return to freezer). Bake as usual, adding 5-10 minutes to the bake time. Might want to brush with more olive oil to prevent it from drying out before the inside is finished.