This easy homemade Stromboli recipe uses a refrigerated pizza dough. Stuffed with Italian cold cuts and cheeses, it is a satisfying finger food at its best. Serve with warm marinara sauce.
My husband loves Stromboli and I don’t think I made his favorite food often enough. I am not sure why I have been negligent on making this easy Stromboli for so long.
I have been making every food on the planet including many western recipes, but making Stromboli has not occurred until now.
All these years I have been busy perfecting my Kimchi recipes or searching and trying out far-far-away exotic foods, but making Stromboli (which is unfortunately NOT my favorite) didn’t quite fell into my ever *must try* recipe list.
Stromboli is not difficult to make at all. If you know how to make the *pig in a blanket*, which basically is a hotdog wrapped in a bread dough, you can easily make this without much fuss. The only problem I encountered was that it was hard to find the various cured Italian pork in the middle of tropical land where pork product is considered “non-Halal”.
This Italian inspired savory bread finger food uses cold cuts like salami, ham and pepperoni. Some likes to add sausage, sauteed peppers and onions on top but I like to stick with “meat & cheese only” request from my protein loving husband. I had to make fresh pizza dough for my Stromboli, but a store bought frozen pizza dough would be a great choice as well.
Take a look how easily I put them all together even with a braided look on the outside. Fancy-schmancy!
Ingredients you’ll need for Stromboli
- pizza dough: store-bought or homemade
- ham, salami, & pepperoni
- provolone & mozzarella cheese
- fresh basil leaves, optional
- olive oil
- oregano
- jarred marinara sauce
How to make Stromboli with a refrigerated pizza dough
First, roll out your pizza dough about 11″x13″ or so. No need to be exact.
Using your rolling pin, transfer the dough on to a baking pan.
Layer your choice of meats in the center. I used ham and salami, couldn’t find the pepperonis, so my Stromboli will be pepperoni-less… 🙁
Layer cheese (provolone and mozzarella) on top and place a few basil leaves. It is my duty to feed my family “vegetable”.
I added some Swiss cheese since I had a few slices on hand.
Cut each side of pizza dough to make 1-inch strips with a knife or a pair of scissor.
Fold the top end first, then bring the strips from each side to make criss-cross pattern one strip at a time.
When it comes to the other end, fold the end and finish the final 1-2 last strips to secure.
Kind of like that. I found braiding is so amusing that I want to braid everything from now on.
Drizzle a little EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) and sprinkle oregano. Bake in hot oven (400˚F) for about 15 minutes or until it forms nice golden brown crust. (My pizza dough has semolina flour in it, which helps create beautiful golden crust without any egg wash.)
DO NOT forget to serve the Stromboli with warm marinara sauce to dip in.
My poor husband who’s been putting up with me for 17 years (and willing to do whole lot longer through eternity) really enjoyed this Stromboli for lunch. We had a nice dinner at Mandarin Oriental Hotel that night to celebrate our marriage.
As I was staring at the braiding work on my Stromboli, a thought came to my mind.
‘A strong marriage is like this braiding work. Its intertwined cooperation and commitment will support each other to keep everything safe inside.’
What a profound wisdom coming out from just looking at a piece of Stromboli? Food is not just food. It can give you valuable life lessons. Don’t you agree?
I better start lecturing my kids to learn their lesson by staring at tomorrow’s dinner, the chicken! Buon Appetito!
Other Savory Recipes
Easy Stromboli Recipe
Ingredients
- a large size pizza dough
- 8-10 slices ham
- 8-10 slices salami
- 8-10 slices pepperoni
- 4-6 slices provolone cheese
- 4-6 slices mozzarella cheese
- 8-10 basil leaves
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 cup warm marinara sauce to dip
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400ºF
- Roll out a pizza dough to form a thin rectangular crust, about 11″x13″, and place the crust on a baking pan lined with a parchment paper.
- Layer slices of ham, salami, and pepperoni as a single row in the center of crust. Layer cheeses over meats and place basil leaves on top.
- Using a knife or a pair of scissor, cut either sides of crust next to the meat & cheese filling to make several 1" wide strips. Fold-in the each end part of the crust toward the filling. Using one strip at a time, lay each strip in criss cross pattern to cover the filling.
- Drizzle olive oil over the crust and sprinkle oregano. Bake for 15 minutes or until the crust turns golden brown. Cool down a little and slice. Serve hot with warm marinara sauce to dip in.
I have made Stromboli and have use pizza dough from my favorite pizza place and grocery store and I find it easier to make my own dough. I love your braiding and how golden brown the crust is. I usually cut the dough in three pieces and let everyone make their own. My daughter likes chicken, cheese and spinach! The worst part is rolling so now I am so excited to try the braid.
Braiding is quite simple and anyone can do it. It looks quite nice on the table, too. Everyone making their own Stromboli with favorite filling is a great idea. Thanks, Lindsey.
Happy anniversary!!!
I’ve never made it as well, but I will because I love baked goods and I like everything you put inside.
OOH! this looks so good. my father would really like this, i am going to forward this to my mom and tell her to make it for him!! i will try and get a sicilian pizza crust here and make it for my hubby. You are so talented!! your kids are lucky 🙂
Sicilian pizza crust will be so awesome especially with their flavorful sausages.
” Food is not just food. It can give you valuable life lessons.” Totally agree with this. I’ve never made stromboli either – never even thought to do so! It’s always been something I’d buy. Yours looks terrific – maybe I should give this a try sometime. Fun post – thanks. Oh, and congrats on 17 years!
Hi, there! Thanks for this! It does look super-easy, and I’ll be trying it soon. Do you have a tried-and-true dough recipe you like and would share?
Yes, I do. I will share the recipe someday.
This is wonderful. I will definitely try it for my next picnic. Can you please share your dough recipe?
I’ve never made or had Stromboli before. It looks easy to make and I realized it’s a wonderful way to use leftover cold cuts after serving them as appetizer at a party. I love your gorgeous photography and every time I come here I get very inspired to take better pictures like yours! 🙂
Nami, you are so sweet. Thanks for the compliment. You are right, you can use all the leftover cold cut to make the Stromboli and it is very easy to make.
Happy anniversary! I love Strombli and can’t imagine a better way to celebrate… though the Mandarin Oriental sounds very lovely, too. I am v. impressed by your braiding technique!
This looks amazing. I’d also love it if you could share your dough recipe!
Holly, i love your dry humour! So yes, i really enjoy reading your post, in addition to the great recipes of course:). Its so funny, i actually has a draft post about how this year is my 10th wedding anniversary and i had never made my husband’s favourite family dish until two weeks ago!! ROTFL.
Thanks Esther. You better make the dish to make your husband happy. 🙂
What a beautiful stromboli
So delicious! I have to do it 😉 what’s a pity that I’m at work now…
I made this for dinner tonight. So easy! It’s cooling off now, can’t wait to dig in.
So I made it, and it was wonderful! It looked great and tasted even better. Thanks for the easy recipe!
So happy to hear that you enjoyed the Stromboli. Thank you for leaving me the sweet comment.
Done! It was delicious! I made it for breakfast today and I used french pastry – quick, simple and so good 🙂 My version is here:
http://bake-and-cook.blogspot.ch/2012/08/stromboli-z-ciasta-francuskiego.html
This looks so beautiful! Well done, and happy anniversary!
I am making this for dinner tonight. You make it look so simple and beautiful. I had to try it!
Made the Stromboli yesterday and it was absolutely delicious. Looking forward to trying some more recipes.
Great! Hope you get to try more recipes. Please, let me know if you have any questions regarding the recipes. Thank you for the comment!
I have a couple questions; how thick would you say the dough is when you roll it out? You said thin, but what does that equate to? Secondly, a girlfriend gave me a recipe that includes an egg yolk for the filling. However, I have looked at several recipes online and none uses an egg. What is your opinion on egg yolk in the filling? Thanks for taking the time to post the wonderful recipe.
Hi Sarah
I would say the thickness is a little thinner than 1/4 inch. I personally never tried using egg yolk in the filling but I know some do. They mix egg yolks with herbs and Parmesan cheese to spread on the bottom than layer with meat and cheese. I am not sure how much egg yolk will add flavor to the Stromboli but it helps the herb mixture to be spreadable consistency.
Going to a football party. Trying to decide if I could make these and take them or if I should just make them up without baking and cook themehenI get there. Any suggestions?
Stromboli tastes best when it is warm. You can make it up to the braiding step, keep in the fridge so that they don’t rise too much, then take it to party and bake it there. (it has yeast in the pizza dough and it will rise. you don’t want it rise like bread). However the whole process, rolling out, adding filling, and braiding, comes together very fast so if there is time and space in the party place, I recommend to put it together there.
I made this today. I made my own pizza dough and it came out absolutely amazingly tasty ! Thank you so much for a fantastic recipe! And I totally agree with you in reference to marriage and braiding work ! 🙂
Dear Holly,
I made Stromboli a couple of days ago with puff pastry instead of pizza dough.
Delicious, thank you for the recipe! By the way in Italy we have no food called Stromboli 🙂
Where does this name come from?
Love from Italy
Andrea
Hi Andrea
It is great to hear you liked my Stromboli recipe. I think Stromboli is originated in U.S. I am not sure how it got the name but surely sounds like Italian, doesn’t it?
Looks absolutely delicious. I’m gonna hit the store after work to see what meats are on sale right now, but the braiding looks fun! I might have to try that!
Pamper Chief has a recipe called a “Chicken & Broccoli Braid”. They use crescent rolls (2pkgs) for the dough. Other things in it are chicken, broccoli, mayo, dill, red pepper, shredded sharp cheese. When braiding they tell you to twisting each pcs.of dough once. I love this recipe! I will be trying yours very soon. Let me be the first to wish you a Happy Anniversary this year being it is just 2 months away. Thanks for sharing.P
Thank you very much Pat. Your comment is so sweet. Chicken and broccoli sounds very nice especially with the cheddar cheese. I think the possibilities are unlimited with the basic recipe like this.
Gaaawwd… your blog is daebak! The pictures are very inviting~ good job imo~
I just made this for dinner… It was my first attempt at stromboli, and it was awesome!! I used Pillsbury pizza crust, and it came out beautifully. Thank you for putting up this easy-to-follow, delicious recipe! Your pictures are great and extremely helpful! I sent a picture of my finished product to my best friend, and now she can’t wait to try it! Yay! 🙂
Making my second one today. I gave up trying to braid on my first attempt. This one I braided. As a single dad I don’t cook much but this was great. I used Canadian bacon, pepperoni and cooked ham. Thanks for posting it was awesome! Cooking it up in Texas!
It takes less than ten minutes of work to make pizza dough from scratch. So much better than store bought, with all the preservatives.
hi Holly,
Thanks for sharing all your recipes..i really enjoy reading your blog. What pizza dough recipe do you use for this? Really looks yummy!
Thanks
Ces
Hi, yesh plsss share with us your pizza dough recipe!!!! Thanks a million!
Great recipe. We often make our own pizza and this is a little bit the same, but the great shape seems to give it a new flavour! I have tried it with all kinds of different ingredients for the filling. Spinach with ricotta and egg mix was delicious.
thanks a lot for it.
Catherine
Can I prepare this early, put in the fridge, and cook when it is almost time to eat? Also, do you let the dough rise before preparing it?
I think you can keep in the fridge after you assemble it. No need to let it rise again.
What a wonderful analogy between the “Braiding” and “Relationship”. Profound revelations as we prepare food for loved ones. Thank you for that.
And it looks so delicious!! 🙂
Eureka I have found it! This Stromboli is what I am making for my husbands birthday dinner today. Thank you for your easy to follow instructions with great pictures. I love the humor and wisdom infused anecdotes.
Thanks Samantha. Hope your husband loved it.
Any idea on what to add using pulled pork? Cheeses, and seasonings? I’m only good add following directions horrible at knowing what goes with what.
This looks so good, we are making it for dinner tonight. I am thinking that if we love it, I will give us all our own section next time so the kids can pick out their toppings, they would have fun with that.
Hope your family liked it. It is a great idea to have each one to build their own Stromboli.
I’ve been searching SO many sites for stromboli since I have a problem. I use bread dough, which must be the same as pizza dough (do a lot of bread baking). I follow all he basic steps for rolling out the dough, etc. But cannot avoid air which lifts the dough from the filling. I see this in many photos but would really like to avoid that happening. Do you have any suggestions?
At first you can’t get enough of the caramel, but after the tenth bite, you go into a slight caramel coma and have to put the spoon down. So my advice is to be sure not to eat the full carton in one sitting or you might not want to eat caramel for about a year or two. There is one improvement that I think Ben & Jerrys could make to Karamel Sutra Core which would have made it my greatest ice cream of all time. …
Americas Test Kitchen Recipes
easy recipes
a) this looks really yummy.
b) I’m pretty sure that if the sauce is outside is a calzone and if the sauce is inside is a stromboli. The shape doesn’t dictate the name.
c) I doubt know everything, so I could be wrong.
Made this today for a picnic, I cheated and used Pillsbury pizza dough since I was in a hurry. I’ll make real dough someday. It didn’t matter, it was gone quickly!
This was wonderful, and it was so easy to make! The braid has a great presentation, and I think this is going to be one of my go-to party/potluck recipes. Delicious! Thank you!
Great to hear it turned out well. Thanks!
I have made this before and used the ingredients in the filling for pizza with cooked hamburger gr. pepper onions let cool, then made my own dough (healthy) all purpose flour whole wheat flour flax seed yeast, olive oil honey and warm water I like it better than pizza dough, rolled it out on parchement paper to 15 x 13 and put a bit of pizza sauce down center hamburg mix turkey pepperoni and topped with mozzarella cheese and braided it Everyone really liked it
Thanks for the great idea, made as instructed and it was perfect (and pretty)!