Stromboli is a cousin to the calzone. Know the difference? The calzone is like a turnover, made with pizza dough. Stromboli is also made with pizza dough, but it’s a rolled affair—it’s a rolled pizza, actually. Both are Italian and use pretty much the same ingredients.

While a calzone has its sauce on the inside (again, think turnover), stromboli is often served with a dish of sauce on the side, to accommodate dipping (think of a French-dipped sandwich).

Besides a seasoned sauce, the calzone is filled with various cheeses, typically mozzarella, and veggies or Italian meats, such as salami, capicola and bresaola. A stromboli is made with square- or rectangle-shaped pizza dough that can be coverred with any pizza toppings, and is then rolled into a log. Both the calzone and the stromboli are baked.

I’ve found the secret to both is a good pizza dough. You may already have a favorite dough recipe, but if not, try this one from professional chef, Emeril Lagasse. It’s pretty fool-proof and also adapts well to making bread sticks or pizza pot pie. (We’ll talk about that in a minute.)

BASIC PIZZA DOUGH

1 cup warm (110°F) water

1 (1/4-ounce) envelope active dry yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, combine the water, yeast, sugar, and 1 tablespoon oil and stir to combine. Let sit until the mixture is foamy, about 5 minutes.

Add 1 1/2 cups of the flour and the salt, mixing by hand until it is all incorporated and the mixture is smooth. Continue adding the flour, 1/4 cup at a time, working the dough after each addition, until all the flour is incorporated but the dough is still slightly sticky. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth but still slightly tacky, 3 to 5 minutes.

Oil a large mixing bowl with the remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil. Place the dough in the bowl and turn to oil all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in a warm, draft-free place until nearly doubled in size, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Once you have a nice dough rising, you want to assemble your filling. The quick and easy route is to simply mix diced bell peppers, sliced mushrooms, chopped onion, cooked and drained Italian sausage (or even cooked and drained ground beef), cooked and crumbled bacon, etc. with a jar of seasoned spaghetti sauce. Be sure to top your filling with LOTS of shredded cheeses (Romano, Parmesan, mozzarella, sharp Cheddar, etc.).

Once your dough is finished rising, punch it down, roll it into a large rectangle or square, and spread with your filling. Sprinkle lots of shredded cheese over this, and then roll it into a log, much the same way you would a gigantic cinnamon roll. Or you can make make a couple smaller stromboli logs.

Brush the top of each stromboli with egg wash. Place log on a well-oiled baking sheet and bake in a 375°F pre-heated oven. Bake until nearly completely golden brown and starting to crisp, about 20 minutes. Sprinkle each stromboli with Parmesan cheese and return to the oven until the cheese is melted and the dough is golden brown, about 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and let stand 10 minutes. Slice thickly and serve.

Now how about that previously-mentioned pizza pot pie? You can make a terrific Italian-type main dish that takes only 15 minutes to prepare and calls for just 7 ingredients. As you might guess, it’s a spin-off from the traditional chicken or beef pot pie. This is from Pillsbury.com and it could easily be turned into an alfredo-type pie by substituting alfredo sauce for the marinara sauce.

ITALIAN POT PIE (makes 4 servings)

1 Pillsbury™ refrigerated pie crust (from 15-oz box), softened as directed on box

1½ cups shredded cooked chicken

1 cup pizza or marinara sauce

1½ cups chopped fresh broccoli

1½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Step 1: Heat oven to 375°F. Remove Pillsbury pie crust from pouch; unroll on cutting board. Place 8-oz ramekin or custard cup on crust; cut 1/4 inch from edge of ramekin to make crust round. Cut 3 more crust rounds from crust.

Step 2: In small bowl, mix chicken and sauce. Fill each 8-oz ramekin halfway up with chicken mixture. Sprinkle each with broccoli, mozzarella cheese and basil.

Step 3: Wet inside of each crust round; place over filled ramekins. Press down around edge of crust rounds. Sprinkle tops with Parmesan cheese. Place ramekins on cookie sheet.

Step 4: Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until crusts are lightly browned.

You can see how easy it would be to adapt this method to whatever fillings you wanted to use. Just fill ramekins or small custard dishes with your favorite pizza filling (see the suggestion for the stromboli filling, above). Then top each dish with a round of pie crust (either purchased or made from scratch). I like to sprinkle other cheeses as well as Parmesan on top of the pie crust prior to baking for an extra flavor touch.

And back to the pizza dough we talked about (above). If you didn’t want to use a pie crust for these pot pies, Emeril’s Basic Pizza Dough works really well. But instead of just topping the ramekin dish with a round of dough, I like to roll it thin and actually line my dishes with the dough, and then top the filled dish with a round of dough. This adds an extra heartiness to the dish.

With a fool-proof basic pizza dough, you can get very creative. So give these ideas a try—whether it’s stromboli or a pizza pot pie, you’re guaranteed an amazingly delicious dish!

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