Meat and Cheese Stromboli

In Westford, we’re lucky to have several different places to buy deli meats and cheeses.  

Of course there’s Market Basket, with an array of affordably-priced options, as well as a couple prepackaged organic choices. 

However, both Meat Again and Stony Brook Acres have delis and carry delicious Boars Head brand cold cuts.

When I want to shake things up from plain old sandwiches, I make stromboli.  If you’ve never had stromboli, it’s basically a sandwich baked right into a loaf of bread.  While my kids are only lukewarm about eating sandwiches, they gobble up strombolis.  

It’s an easy meal to customize because you can fill your sandwich with whatever you’d like.  Pizza stromboli, filled with sauce, mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni, is especially popular in our house. 

This week, I made a chicken, cheddar, caramelized onions, and steamed broccoli stromboli.  The onions and broccoli were leftover from earlier in the week—this is a good way to use up leftover veggies! You can use just about any combination of meat, cheese, and veggies:  whatever strikes your fancy!

Ingredients:

• 1 ball of pizza dough or 1 frozen loaf of bread dough, thawed (alternately, you could make your own pizza dough)
• Approximately ½ lb of deli meats and cheeses of your choice (or more meat and cheese, if you like a very stuffed sandwich)
• Cooked vegetables of your choice
• 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
• Dried herbs of your choice (I like Penzey’s Sandwich Sprinkle, which is a mix of salt, garlic, oregano, and other spices)
• Cooking Spray

Directions:

1. Spray the inside of a large bowl with cooking spray.  Place the pizza dough in the bowl, cover with a towel, and let it warm to room temperature for about an hour.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
3. On a large cookie sheet, stretch the pizza dough into a rectangular shape.
4. Imaging the rectangle divided into thirds, creating three long rows.  You’re not going to cut it or even mark it, you just want to have an idea of where to start.  Near the bottom of the middle row, layer half of your meats, cheeses, and vegetables.  Fold the bottom row over the fillings.  I’ve included pictures so you can get the idea.
5. On top of the section that has been folded over, place another layer of the meats, cheeses, and vegetables.  Fold the top row over the second layer of filling.  Make sure to cover the fillings completely.  Press all of the edges to seal the stromboli. 
6. Drizzle approximately 1 tablespoon of olive oil over the top of the loaf.  Use the back of the spoon or a pastry brush to spread the oil over the entire top of the loaf.  Sprinkle with seasoning of your choice.
7. Bake for approximately 15 minutes, until the top of the loaf is golden brown.

Slice to desired size and serve.