Spinach and Mushroom Stromboli

A stromboli is more or less a big stuffed sandwich, similar to a calzone.  With some styles of stromboli, the ingredients are layered over the dough and then rolled for a spiral effect.  With some, like this one, the ingredients are piled on and the dough is wrapped around them. This stromboli starts with an easy homemade bread dough and just gets better from there with fresh ingredients like spinach, mushrooms, garlic, red bell pepper and lots of ooey gooey mozzarella cheese.

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know how much I love the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day guys.  To make this stromboli without using frozen bread dough or, even worse, that icky "dough" in the can in the dairy section of the grocery store, I'm going to show you how easy it is to make your own dough.  If you're not familiar their method, you're going to be blown away at how easy it is.  Are you ready?

Combine:
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour 
1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour 
2 tsp Kosher salt
2 1/4 tsp yeast (one envelope)
in a medium mixing bowl.  Mix.

Make a well in the center.  Pour in:
 1 1/4 c warm water (about 90 degrees or so)

Mix well with a sturdy spoon.

Cover and let rise for about 2 hours.

When it looks something like this, it's ready to use.

That's it.  Think you swing it?  I think so, too. It's pretty hard to mess up.  And another great aspect about this method is that if you want to prep the dough ahead of time, after the initial rise you can just put the dough in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it (just like that stuff in the can, only NOT).  Nice!

In fact, each step of this stromboli can be made ahead of time and stored separately (the spinach and mushroom mixture, the dough, the pizza sauce, the shredded cheese) in the refrigerator for quick assembly of an easy, filling, delicious, completely homemade dinner on a busy night.

In the recipe that follows, I give instructions for using a pizza peel and stone.  If you don't yet own a pizza stone, you can use an oiled jelly roll pan for this recipe.

You may notice from the pictures that I forgot to slash the top to allow steam to escape.  The steam will need to get out one way or another, folks, so it's wise to choose where you would like that to happen before you have a minor blow out in an odd place.  The slashes don't need to be deep, and there really only needs to be a few of them, each about two inches long.

Spinach and Mushroom Stromboli
serves 5-6

• 1 Tbs olive oil
• 8 oz cremini mushrooms, stems removed and sliced
• 1/2 c red bell pepper, chopped
• 1/4 c onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 8 oz fresh spinach, washed and roughly chopped
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 8 oz fresh mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1/2 c pizza sauce
• 1 egg white plus 1 Tbs water
• 1/4 c grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 recipe bread dough (see above)

Preheat oven and pizza stone to 450 F.

Heat olive oil in 12" skillet over medium high heat.  Saute the mushrooms, bell pepper, onion, and garlic until the vegetables are tender and any liquid had mostly evaporated; about 5-6 minutes.

Mix in the spinach and gently stir until the spinach has completely wilted; about 5-6 minutes more.  Season with salt and pepper.

Remove from heat and set aside.

Lightly flour a large pizza peel. Dust the dough with flour.  Scoop out the dough and form into a ball. 

With a rolling pin, roll the dough into a rectangle about 20 inches by 8 inches.

Sprinkle 1 cup of mozzarella down the center of the dough.  Top with pizza sauce, then the spinach mixture.  Sprinkle with the remaining 1 cup of mozzarella.

Bring up one side of the dough and gently stretch over the filling.  Do the same with the other side. Seal the ends, and pinch edges to secure, taking care not to tear the dough.

With a sharp knife, make 3 or 4 shallow slashes across the top of the bread. Mix the egg white and water together with a fork.  Using a pastry brush, brush the top and sides of the stromboli with the egg wash.  Sprinkle with Parmesan and oregano.

Carefully slide the stromboli onto the hot pizza stone.  Bake for about 25 minutes, or until the stromboli is deeply golden.

Use a bread knife to slice.  Enjoy!

March is #greenslove month!

Please join in the #greenslove fun by linking up any leafy green recipe from the month of March 2012.  Don't forget to link back to this post so that your readers know to come by the #greenslove event!  The twitter hashtag is #greenslove.

Check out the #greenslove co-hosts!

Al Dente Gourmet ~ Aldy ~ @AlDenteGourmet

ASTIG Vegan ~ Richgail ~  @astigvegan

Badger Girl Learns to Cook ~ Kimberly ~ @BdgrGrl

Baking and Cooking, A Tale of Two Loves ~ Becky Higgins

BigFatBaker ~ Erin ~ @BigFatBaker

Bon a croquer ~ Valerie ~ @Valouth

CafeTerraBlog ~ Terra ~ @CafeTerraBlog

Cake Duchess ~ Lora ~ @cakeduchess

Cheap Ethnic Eatz ~ Evelyne ~ @cethniceatz

Easily Good Eats ~ Three Cookies

Georgiecakes ~ Georgie ~ @georgiecakes

Kitchen Belleicious ~ Jessica ~ @kbelleicious

Mis Pensamientos ~ Junia ~ @juniakk

My Twisted Recipe ~ Dudot ~ @mytwistedrecipe  

No One Likes Crumbley Cookies ~ TR ~ @TRCrumbley

Oh Cake ~ Jessica ~ @jesshose

Queen's Notebook ~ Elizabeth ~ @Mango_Queen  

Rico sin Azucar ~ Helena ~ @ricosinazucar

Savoring Every Bite ~ Linda ~ @Spicegirlfla

Simply Reem ~ Reem ~ @simplyreem

Soni's Food for Thought ~ Soni ~ @sonisfood 

Sprint 2 the Table ~ Laura ~ @Sprint2theTable

Teaspoon of Spice ~ Deanna ~ @tspbasil 

That Skinny Chick Can Bake ~ Liz ~ @Thatskinnychick

The Art of Cooking Real Food ~ Laura ~@TAofCRF

The Spicy RD ~ EA ~ @thespicyrd 

The Wimpy Vegetarian ~ Susan ~ @wimpyvegetarian

Vegan Yack Attack! ~ Jackie ~ @veganyackattack

Vegetarian Mamma  ~ Cindy ~ @VegetarianMamma