If you like pizza, you’ll love this easy recipe and it’s ready in about 30 minutes.
This easy Stromboli recipe starts with refrigerated pizza dough. It is loaded with salami, pepperoni, ham, and lots of cheese. It’s all rolled up and baked until golden.
Slice and serve with an extra helping of your favorite sauce for dipping.
An Italian Favorite Made Easy
I don’t know anything that will bring the family to the table faster than the smell of pizza baking in the oven. Stromboli pizza is that magical combination of dough, meat, and cheese with Italian seasoning that gets them every time.
This stromboli recipe is quick and easy enough to serve as an appetizer for a crowd but it’s also great to serve for a weeknight dinner. I often make two (switch up the flavors for variety!) and send leftover stromboli for school or work lunches the next day!
What Is The Difference Between a Calzone and a Stromboli?
Let’s start with what is a Stromboli? You won’t find a lot of difference between stromboli vs calzone.
A stromboli is like a pizza that is rolled into a log before baking and once baked it is sliced. Either way, they’re both delicious and use many of the same ingredients! A calzone is essentially a pizza folded in half and sealed, it is usually in a semi-circle shape (and often contains ricotta cheese).
Ingredients for Stromboli
One of the best things about this stromboli recipe is how easy it is to prep. If you have kids who like to help in the kitchen, they can probably prepare almost the entire recipe without help (depending on age of course)!
- The Crust – Use refrigerated pizza dough to make this an easy 30-minute meal or if time allows, make homemade pizza dough.
- The Sauce – I like to use either homemade marinara sauce or pizza sauce but of course, store-bought is great too. I found an Italian market in my city and asked for recommendations, I keep a few cans in the cupboard recipes like this.
- Toppings & Fillings – I keep these basic (and family-friendly) using salami, pepperoni, and ham as well as a good covering of mozzarella cheese and Parmesan.You can add any filling you’d like when making homemade stromboli, from meats to bell peppers to olives. If you are using veggies that have a lot of water, like mushrooms, be sure to cook them first and dab dry or drain well. Meats (like sausage) should be pre-cooked or ‘ready to eat’. If adding onions, I like to soften in a pan first as well.
How to Make Stromboli
This stromboli recipe is super easy to make.
- Roll out pizza dough
- Add cheese and toppings and roll into a log.
- Brush with egg wash and bake. So easy!
We brush with an egg wash but if you’d prefer, you can brush the top with olive oil or melted butter (or even garlic butter). Sprinkle it with a bit of parmesan or some fresh herbs if you’d like.
To Make Stromboli Ahead of Time
Stromboli is perfect for prepping ahead and either refrigerating or freezing!
- Prepare fully, then cover with plastic wrap on the baking sheet and refrigerate up to 12 hours before baking.
- Or prepare, bake, cool, wrap tightly and freeze. To serve, thaw for 5-6 hours at room temperature, then heat at 350°F for 10-20 minutes until heated through.
For a really hungry crowd, I add a side of Easy Italian Salad or Italian Wedding Soup (or both sometimes!).
More Pizza Inspired Recipes You’ll Love!
- One Pot Pepperoni Mac and Cheese With Bacon – bacon, enough said!
- Bubble Pizza Bread – everyone loves it, kids especially!
- Margherita Pizza – classic
- Pizza Grilled Cheese – a popular reader recipe
- Grilled Cheeseburger Pizza – fun dinner, under 20 minutes!
Stromboli Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 can refrigerated pizza dough enough for 1 pizza
- 1 ½ cups mozzarella cheese shredded, divided
- ⅓ cup marinara sauce
- ½ cup cooked ham chopped
- ½ cup salami slices
- ½ cup pepperoni slices
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon water
- ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Roll pizza dough out on a lightly floured surface into a roughly 12" x 16" rectangle (it doesn't have to be perfect).
- Spread marinara sauce over pizza dough, but leave one inch all the way around and 2-3" at the long side furthest from you.
- Top with 1 cup of the shredded cheese, then ham, salami, and pepperoni. Finish with remaining ½ cup cheese.
- Roll up as tightly as possible, doing your best not to push out the toppings as you do so. Stop just before you reach the end.
- Whisk together egg, water, Italian seasoning and garlic powder. Brush over pizza dough where the edges will meet, then pinch together.
- Place on prepared baking sheet with the seal down and brush with the egg wash.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown and slightly puffed. Let rest for 5-10 minutes before slicing.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Dinner, Lunch, Main Course, Pizza
Cuisine American, Italian© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
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My family loved this meal. I have 3 teen daughters who do not eat large portions, and the entire stromboli was demolished. For a family of 5 that eats smaller portions than most, I plan to make 2 servings next time and they can take in school lunch the next day :) Also, don’t skip the egg wash with seasonings. It makes a nice crusty flavor!
Did your kids take it to school cold or did you warm it up, wrap it in foil and hope for the best? LOL
Easy to make& delicious
Simple, delicious and quick. I loved this recipe.
FYI: A calzone usually has marinara and ricotta inside in addition to any toppings. A stromboli is usually just cheese and toppings.
So glad you loved it, thank you for sharing!
This is so good!!! Just tried it for lunch today. It was easy to make with basic ingredients (most of which I already had on hand), and it got a thumbs-up from the entire family, including two very picky teenage boys. The flavors blended together to make a very delicious stromboli. Looked pretty impressive too, like I had spent a lot of time on it :-). Thank you for this wonderful recipe. We’ll be making this often. I would highly recommend!
So glad they love this Stromboli recipe Karen! I love that it is so versatile!
LOVE LOVE LOVE THE RECIPES
This was my first time with the additional herbs and season. It was a bit too intense maybe.
But I really want to comment on your remark about calzone vs stromboli. I have to disagree with the difference – and could be a geographic difference.
Calzones IMO are not proper w/o some ricotta. Like, ricotta and mozzarella cheese as a start and other fillings optional.
On the other hand I don’t expect any ricotta in a Stromboli.
Otherwise all was delicious with your version of stromboli.
I’ll add, while I’m typically a purist with ingredients, I’ve found the Kraft mozz cream cheese blend shredded mozz to really work nice when stromboli is concerned.
Thanks!
That is interesting Jill, thank you for sharing!
Another major difference between stromboli and calzones, according to the Italian lady that taught me to make these 40 years ago and Bon Appetit, is that calzones do not have any pizza sauce inside the pastry. It is served on the side for dipping. That is how I have kept them straight, stromboli sauce and tube shaped, calzones semi circle no sauce.
Thank you for the info Catherine!
All I can say is, Thanks Sooo Very much!
I love this one’s Ease & Taste!!!
I am so glad you enjoyed this recipe Teresa!