This is a really fantastic dish – the quickest way to
explain it is to talk about a rolled-up pizza, but really it’s so much better
than that. The dough is a bit more like bread than a standard pizza base, so
you end up with a lovely crisp crust on the top, and then squidgy layers in the
middle, sandwiched with rich tomato sauce, gooey cheese and salami. Don’t be
put off by the idea of having to make your own dough – although you need to
leave some extra time for it to rise, it’s not really very complicated. Make it
a few times and you’ll soon get the hang of it.
Ingredients
For the dough:
500g strong white flour
1 x 7g sachet of fast-action dried yeast
Salt
Olive oil
325ml warm water
For the filling:
400g passata
1 onion
A couple of cloves of garlic
Dried oregano
A packet of Milano salami
A ball of mozzarella
Cheddar cheese (as much as you like!)
A handful of fresh basil
Salt & pepper
Fresh rocket, to serve
Serves 6.
To start making your dough, mix the yeast in with the
flour in a large bowl. Add two teaspoons of salt and two tablespoons of olive
oil to the warm water (make sure you measure it as exactly as possible), then
add to the flour and mix gently with a wooden spoon until the dough comes
together into a ball.
Clean a work surface thoroughly, dry it, and cover it
with flour. Transfer the ball of dough to the floured surface and knead it for
five minutes or so (add more flour if it’s too sticky) until it’s a nice smooth
lump, then pop it into a bowl, cover with a clean tea-towel, and leave it to
rise for about an hour, or until it’s roughly doubled in size.
When you’re ready to finish off the second part of the
preparation, start making the tomato sauce. Heat a good splash of olive oil in
a frying pan. Dice the onion and crush the garlic, and fry both gently until
the onion turns golden-brown. Add the passata and a good sprinkling of dried
oregano, and leave it to bubble for about five minutes. Taste, and season
accordingly. You might want to add a pinch of sugar at this point if there’s a touch
of sourness to the tomatoes. Finally, take the pan off the heat and leave the
sauce to cool.
Now would be a good time to start preheating the oven –
set it to 200˚C. Next, roll your dough out into a rectangle – you’re
going to roll it up widthways, so make sure it’s a suitable size for the baking
tray you’re intending to use. Try and make it reasonably thin – perhaps 0.5 cm –
but be really careful not to make holes it otherwise your filling will leak
out! Once the dough is rolled out, spread the tomato sauce evenly across it,
leaving a 2cm border around the edge. Rip the mozzarella into small pieces and
scatter across, then add grated cheddar and fresh basil. Finally, arrange the
salami in a line down the centre, so that when you roll it up (widthways) every
slice will have salami in it.
Tuck the long sides in, then gently roll the whole thing
up, and crimp the ends a little with your fingers – this will stop the sauce
leaking out. Brush the top with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle with salt and a
little dried oregano.
Pop the stromboli in the oven and set a timer for 30
minutes – when it’s ready, the Stromboli should be golden-brown on top and
smelling absolutely delicious. Serve it up with some zingy fresh rocket and a
cold beer.