Emeril Lagasse Stromboli

While completing his schooling at BYU, David took a semester off to do an internship with IBM in San Jose. We stayed with my parents in Burlingame and David commuted back and forth each day. While working at IBM, some of the employees introduced David to a fantastic Italian restaurant and David would frequently stop there on the way home and bring a piping hot stromboli back for me. Many years later, I decided to try making stromboli myself and gave this recipe a shot.

Basic Pizza Dough (your favorite recipe will do)
1/2 lb hot Italian sausage, removed from casings and crumbled
1 cup sliced yellow onions
1/2 cup thinly sliced red bell peppers
1/2 cup thinly sliced green bell peppers
2 Tbsp thinly sliced jalapenos
2 Tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 lb sliced ham
1/4 lb thinly sliced pepperoni or salami
2 cups grated provolone
2 cups grated mozzarella
1 large egg, beaten with 1 Tbsp water to make an egg wash
1 cup finely grated Parmesan

Preheat the oven to 375. Grease a large baking sheet and set aside (or you can dust a baking peel with cornmeal and bake on a pizza stone). In a large skillet, cook the sausage over medium-high heat until browned and the fat is rendered, about 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain well on paper towels. Discard all but 1 Tbsp of fat from the pan. Add the onions, bell peppers, and jalapeno and cook, stirring, until very soft (4-5 minutes). Add the garlic and Italian seasoning and cook, stirring for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and cool. Punch down pizza dough and divide in half. On a lightly floured surface, roll out half of the dough to a large rectangle, about 10 x 14 inches. Spread half of the cooled sausage mixture across the dough leaving a 1-inch border. Overlapping slightly, layer half of the ham, pepperoni, provolone, and mozzarella over the top. Using a pastry brush, paint the border of 1 long edge with egg wash. Starting at the opposite long end without egg wash, roll up the dough into a cylinder, pinching the edges to seal. Place on the prepared baking sheet and repeat with the remaining ingredients. Let the dough rise 20-30 minutes. Brush the top of the stromboli with egg wash. 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 oven and let stand 10 minutes. Slice thickly and serve. Yield: 6 servings.

Note: we love the pizza sauce at our house, so I added a couple of spoonfuls of my favorite pizza sauce to the meats and cheeses before roling up the stromboli. You may also want to heat a small bowl of pizza sauce for dipping.