Stromboli

This bread was first seen in the USA at the start of the 1950's, baked within the American-Italian community.  It was named after an Ingrid Bergman film - Stromboli, terra di dio.  It is essentially a pizza rolled up and baked as a bread loaf.

Start with making a pizza dough - 200g strong white flour, 15g butter (chilled and grated) rubbed into the flour and a sachet of dried bread yeast.  beat and egg in some cold water and use to make up a soft bread dough.  Rest to rise for an hour.  You will also need your filling.  In this case, tomatoes pureed, fried mushrooms with garlic and black pepper and some basil leaves.

Roll out the dough on baking parchment and square off.  I used pasta flour and Atta flour for this bake as I had those flours in my cupboard, but I would otherwise have used a mixture of strong white and pasta flour.

Add the filling of tomato sauce, mushrooms and basil - mozzarella cheese could also be grated on at this point, but I wanted to reduce the fat content of this loaf. Go with your own taste.

Roll up tightly, using the baking parchment and rest for another 30 minutes to double in size.  Bake at 200 degrees Celsius for 25 minutes and cool before slicing.

Other filling options could use salmon, salami, olives or spinach.  It is a food that can be eaten as a base for a salad or as a stand alone item at a picnic table.  Left overs also make a good breakfast  item.

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