Who doesn’t like Italian food? If you don’t like pasta, there is pizza. If you don’t like pizza, there is….Stromboli! And after ordering it the last time we were out, I decided…I can make it. It doesn’t take very much time or prep work, and is delicious on a cold night with a cup of minestrone soup or salad. So with last night being a bit chilly, and all ingredients already in my pantry and fridge…Here is my own recipe: Susanna’s Strombolicious

Ingredients for Stromboli (not pictured is 1/2 lb. of beef/or sausage, 1 egg white, and 1 refrigerated pizza crust and spices)

Ingredients:

• -3/4 cup of chopped onion
• -1 cup of chopped green bell pepper
• -20 pepperonis sliced into quarters
• -5 slices of hard salami chopped
• -1/2 cup of shredded parmesan
• -1 1/2 cup of italian blend cheese
• 1/2 lb of ground beef or ground sausage (I used beef)
• 1 refrigerated pizza crust
• 1 egg white
• 1 cup of creamy vodka Wolfgang Puck sauce
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon chopped oregano
• 2 tablespoons of EVOO

Preheat oven to 425. Chop onion, bell pepper, pepperonis, and salami. Measure out your spices, cheese, and sauce and move to side until needed.

Take a nonstick skillet and turn heat to medium. Measure out your EVOO, and after about a minute toss your onion and bell peppers with the hot oil

Chopped onion and bell pepper tossed in EVOO

After about 4-5 minutes, your vegetables will have shrunk in size as well as become a little translucent. They should be soft (not crunchy like raw veggies). Take your beef/or sausage and add to the skillet. Now is also the time to add your garlic, salt, pepper, cumin and oregano. Cook till meat is completely browned through.

Add meat and spices

Add 1 cup of vodka sauce to cooked meat. Stir in, till completely mixed and warm.

Take your refrigerated pizza crust out. Grab a smallish cookie sheet and lay out your pizza crust till all corners are touched. Spoon your meat/sauce mixture onto 1/2 of crust.

Meat/sauce mixture spooned onto 1/2 of crust

Layer your pepperoni and salami atop your meat/sauce

Then sprinkle your parmesan and Italian cheese blend atop the salami/pepperoni

Taking the side of crust that does not have anything on it, pull it over till it covers the mixture completely and pinch the crusts together, making sure they stick to one another. Then take your egg white and brush it over the crust (before sticking in oven). If you find that you don’t have any eggs…spray with PAM

Crust that has been brushed by egg white

Stick into preheated oven and cook for about 12-16 minutes (really depends on your oven) or until you can see the crust has been browned/cooked through.

Cut into slices, and ENJOY:)

Ready to eat stromboli

As a side note…if you want your stromboli slices to be thinner…you could always use 2 cookie sheets. Cut your unbaked crust in half and divide meat/sauce mixture in half. Therefore you would have 2 strombolis and they would be thinner, for perhaps a party!