My aunt and uncle have a good friend that makes the most wonderful homemade stromboli and he gave me very quick directions on how to concoct my own Stromboli the last time I saw him. So with his quick and dirty guide to rolled up pizza-ish goodness I decided to try my hand at this Italian classic with sausage, onion and zucchini. Stromboli can be a meal or an appetizer but you will almost never have any leftovers. I made mine with my homemade pizza dough that has whole wheat flour in so I feel a little bit better about eating something so decadent. I serve it with small bowl of basic tomato sauce for dipping. The key with the stromboli is not to over fill and not make the filling to liquid. For a nice dinner add a green salad and glass of Chianti.

Sausage Onion and Zucchini Stromboli

Ingredients

Half a batch of homemade pizza dough or enough store bought dough for one 9 inch pizza
3 hot or mild Italian sausages
1 small white onion sliced
½ a red onion sliced
1 small zucchini sliced small and thin
3 cloves of garlic diced or microplaned
2 tbsp Italian spice blend or oregano basil and thyme
1 cup of spinach chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
4 tbsp tomato paste the good kind in the tube
1 cup grated provolone
4-6 oz of fresh mozzarella sliced
Olive Oil
Corn meal and white flower for dusting

Instructions

Preheat your oven with your pizza stone (if you have one) already inside to 400 degrees. Into a hot pan with a small drizzle of olive oil add your sausage after it has been removed from the casings. Brown the meat chunking it up into bit sized pieces. Then add the 2 colors of onions.
When the onion has had about 5 minutes in the pan add the spices, garlic, and zucchini. Cook until the zucchini is tender, don’t overcook. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the spinach.
Allow you dough to come to room temperature before you try and roll it out. Roll out the pizza dough so it is a long rectangle about 8 inches wide. Place dough on a cookie sheet dusted with corn meal to keep it from sticking. The corn meal will give added crunch to the crust too.
Paint the dough with tomato paste, us the good stuff in the tube if you can, leaving a boarder around the edges without sauce.
Next add the filling putting about 2 or more cups of the filing on the dough. Next layer on the 2 kinds of cheese. If you want to add fresh basil or other spices go for it!
To roll up the dough, start on the end with all the filling and carefully roll it over tucking the edges together. (Sorry I don’t have step by step photos but I couldn’t roll and photograph at the same time.) Poke a few holes I the dough to let steam escape.
Let the rolled up Stromboli rest for about 20 minutes. Then put it in the oven for 30 minutes at 400 degrees or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and rest for another 10 minutes before you serve.