Easy Stromboli Recipe
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!
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.
Thanks for the great idea, made as instructed and it was perfect (and pretty)!
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
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!
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.
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. …
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?
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.
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.
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.
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!! 🙂
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.
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
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!
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.
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! 🙂