Aunt Alice's Stromboli Recipe on Food52 (2024)

This recipe is a family favorite—it originates with my Aunt Alice who makes this for every family event. She taught it to me in my teens and I have been making it ever since. I'm not sure if it has evolved over time but the basic trick is to use frozen bread dough for the Stromboli. Some grocery stores carry a basic white bread dough - usually 3 or 5 loaves (Like this http://www.bridgford.com/bread/). Normally you would let this rise to make bread but here you roll it out and use it as Stromboli crust before it rises - the result is a very thin, malleable dough that encases the goodness inside. Depending on how many loaves of bread you get - you may need to adjust the amounts of filling—I am giving you my estimate for 5 loaves.

Now, the insides: I never stray from this combination of fillings—there is some alchemy here that occurs with the sweetness of the ham, salty meats and cheeses and the hint of green pepper. Even if you don't want the green pepper, bake it with the pepper and remove later. Trust me. I go straight to the deli counter and get everything sliced there. Don't bother with small pieces of pepperoni or salami, you want the sandwich size for this recipe.

Serve with your favorite marinara. I like Rao's or you could use Hazan's tomato, onion, butter deliciousness here. These freeze beautifully. As you can see from my picture, I do a little assembly line. Just wrap them up before the dough rises and bake straight from frozen and add about 10-15 minutes. —meganvt01

I did 1/4 recipe since I really only needed 1 stromboli. All of the frozen bread options at the store were par-baked (Ace Bread is really big here). The only thing suitable was the pizza dough from the deli. I used 400g of dough and that worked nicely.

I free formed the filling and just layered to make it so every slice would have a bit of everything in it. I don't think you need to overthink it. I don't really like green pepper, but I do get what she means about pick it out after so you still have the flavour (as a child my favorite pizza was Hawaiian but with the pineapple picked off. I refused pizza with just ham because it didn't have the lingering taste of pineapple.). My suggestion if you don't want the green pepper would be to sub a different pepper since it still tastes like green pepper. I didn't magically like the flavour of it here.

I was lazy and for sauce just used passata with a pinch of salt and pepper. That worked nicely. —Stephanie Bourgeois

Directions

1. Defrost the bread dough—you can use the microwave (but be careful not to cook too long or the dough will cook) or at room temperature for a few hours; however, keep it cool and don't let the bread rise.
2. Roll out the dough—I like my Stromboli to be big—one will fit in a half sheet pan diagonally. So roll it out to some semblance of a rectangle or oval, about 20-24 inches long and about 12-16 inches wide (see picture).
3. Time to assemble! I always do the same: start with ham and lay it on the center about 1 inch apart, cover the blank strip with salami, and so on with the pepperoni, then mozzarella, then provolone. Place about 8-10 strips of green pepper. Then, starting at one end, fold the sides together and pinch them together - then end will be a nice doughy part. I always like to stuff some extra filling on the end so its a really good piece.
4. Line a sheet pan with foil and brush with olive oil or cooking spray - lay the Stromboli down, seam side down and bake in a preheated 350° F oven for 20-30 minutes until golden brown and bubbling. Let cool for a few minutes then serve by cutting the Stromboli into 1.5 inch slices. Serve with your favorite marinara.
5. If you are freezing, prep the foil as above (oil or spray) and wrap tightly with foil. You can bake these straight from freezing at the same temp, just add 10 minutes or so.

Recipe by: meganvt01