I have obviously been on a pizza kick lately. I guess the baby is a fan!
When I was at UT in Austin I used to love Double Dave's, especially their yummy Peproni Rolls. I probably ate way too many of these but man, they were so good! There are no Double Dave's locations in Denver so I decided to make my own. I searched for an authentic recipe but was not successful. I winged it because really, how hard complicated could pepperoni rolls be? My favorite pizza dough recipe, a few slices of Boar's Head pepperoni and some mozzarella chunks were all I needed to recreate a favorite! They made for a delicious Sunday night treat!
I used mozzarella cheese but you could also use smoked provolone.
Pepperoni Rolls
makes 8 rolls
1 ball pizza dough
4 large slices pepperoni, cut in half
8 pieces of mozzarella cheese, sliced lengthwise into 4 inch long "sticks"
1 large egg, combine with 1 tablespoon water to form egg wash
Parmesan cheese for topping
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
On a flour dusted surface, roll out pizza dough into a rectangle, approximately 20 inches by 10 inches. Use a pizza cutter to divide the dough horizontally and then vertically into 4 smaller rectangles. Cut each rectangle diagonally so that you end up with a total of 8 triangles.
At the top (widest part) of each triangle, place 1 mozzarella stick on top of 1 piece of pepperoni. Roll the dough down over the cheese and pepperoni until you can fold the tip over the entire roll. Stretch the 2 ends out and under the roll. Carefully pinch close any holes to make sure that no cheese melts out during baking.
Space the rolls out evenly on a cookie or baking sheet, lightly greased or covered in parchment paper. Generously brush each roll with the egg wash. Bake for approximately 15 minutes, or until golden brown. While still warm, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
It's no secret that I love pizza. One of my first cooking memories was making pizza with my mom when I was about 7 years old. In high school I worked at Fuzzy's Pizza where I worked my way up to assistant manager! Wow! When I was single and teaching, I used to make a big veggie pizza on Sunday and take it for lunch throughout the week. I have tried about a million pizza dough recipes, both regular and whole wheat. They were all just ok but I had yet to find one that reminded me of the dough at Dolce Vita. My friend Susan mentioned that this one was amazing...she was right! I think we have a winner!
I have always baked my pizzas in the oven but grilling pizza sounded very interesting. We don't have a grill available to us so I decided to get creative and use my cast iron skillet.
I really like to pile on the veggies but Peter hates broccoli on pizza so I left it out this time. I kept it simple with some tomatoes, green bell pepper, garlic and mushrooms. I don't like sauce on my pizza but you could certainly add your favorite sauce and it would still be yummy!
Vegetable Pizza
1 medium ball of pizza dough
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, chopped
5 thin slices tomato- enough to almost cover the dough's surface
5 thin slices of green bell pepper
1 cup button mushrooms, cleaned and sliced thin
1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
Generously coat cast iron skillet with non-stick spray and place over medium heat. Coat your hands in olive oil and press the dough into a circle covering the bottom of the skillet. Watch the dough carefully and use a spatula to check occasionally. When the dough starts to firm up but before it begins to brown, add the pizza toppings to the dough. Continue to check the dough approximately every 45 seconds. When it has reached desired doneness, remove from the skillet.
I placed my pizza under the broiler for about a minute just to fully melt the cheese.
