pretending to be Italian.

I like to pretend to be Italian. It's no secret that I'm obsessed with Italy. I ask my husband quite often when I can take him to Italy (he's never been!).

People often assume I'm Italian because our last name is Italian. For example, there's a bus driver I see almost every day who tries to speak Italian to me. I speak Spanish back. He doesn't seem to notice. Anyways, I'm not Italian. Not even one drop, that I know of. My husband's not even biologically Italian. Although he actually looks like he is. Me? Nope. Not even a bit.

Oh well. Anyways, my Mama makes a mean stromboli. Her stromboli (which I feel coincided often with snow days, but maybe I'm wrong) is delicious. My Mama can cook. And she does it effortlessly. She cooked for us (SIX KIDS, PEOPLE) without batting an eye. And there are many things that will always belong to Mama, and will never be my recipes: stromboli. Swedish  meatballs. Swedish rye bread. Homemade pizza... I could go on and on. She's amazing.

Back to pretending to be Italian, I asked Mama for her stromboli recipe. She emailed it to me promptly but I let it sit in my email for a few weeks... It was a little intimidating. AJ really loves Mama's stromboli and I didn't want to make it only to pale in comparison.

So last night, I decided to make it. Problem is: Mama's recipe calls for homemade dough, which obviously entails time to let rise and rest. I didn't have time to wait. Have I mentioned I'm impatient? In Florida (where we go to visit AJ's family), they have Publix. I love Publix. At Publix, they sell balls of pizza dough already made and ready to roll. I wanted one of those so I didn't have to wait for yummy dough to rise. Well- we don't have Publix and I've never seen pizza dough pre-made up here in VA (so far! I'm holding out hope!). I was asking a co-worker if she had ever seen pre-made pizza dough in a grocery store and she suggested using the pizza dough that Pillsbury sells in a can (like the cinnamon rolls). GENIUS.

I stopped at our local grocery store on the way home and picked up a can of dough (sounds funny) and the rest of the ingredients I needed. I got home and opened the dough. I spread it out on a foil-covered baking pan. It was so easy. Mama-I hope you start doing this when you don't have time to make dough and let it rise. I also started to saute the peppers and onions to get them nice and browned.

Then, I started layering everything. I laid the ham, salami, and pepperoni before adding the cheese. Then, I finished it off by adding the veggies.

Can you say yumm-o! Then, all I had to do was close it by folding the sides and the ends in.

You don't have to even make sure it looks nice because people will forgive you once they taste it.

I then drizzled some garlic oil and oregano on top. Mama never did this growing up but it added a different taste to the crust... so good!

Then, I just tossed it in the oven  (375 degrees) for 20 minutes. When it came out of the oven, I thought AJ was going to start crying. He was so pleased with me ;)

Here it is sliced and gooey!

Here's our secret family recipe :) It's not very specific with amounts, so add to your taste :) For one stromboli, I got 1/4 pound of the ham, salami, and pepperoni each at the deli counter. I didn't use all of it but it was a good amount. Can you even get 1/5 of a pound at the deli counter? I'm thinking like a teacher; I wonder if the deli worker would know the equivalent decimal? Interesting thought. ANYWAYS- back to stromboli :) Here are the fillings:

• boiled or baked ham (I cheated here too by just buying honey ham at the deli counter)
• salami
• pepperoni
• mozzarella cheese
• provolone cheese
• sauteed peppers and onions
• mushrooms

If you want the recipe for the dough, let me know but I didn't put it on here because I used pizza dough.


Hope you have a wonderful weekend!