Saturday, November 22, 2014

Homemade Spinach Pizza Roll

If I asked what is the ONE dinner that you eat at least once a week, regardless of work night, school night or weekend....what would your answer be?

Fast Food? (please don't say McDonald's) Soup? Sandwiches? Spaghetti? Pizza? PB and J? Cereal?

Ours is PIZZA! First of all, we rarely call out for pizza if we do I am, knocked out, dragged out too tired from work to even walk into the kitchen and we have this little hole in the wall pizza place we call, no Domino's or Pizza hut (yuck) However, when I want an easy night to make dinner, it's Pizza Night! We like a thin crust, no sauce, one meat and lots of veggies!

For November, the Allrecipes.com Allstar Ambassadors could choose Reynolds this month to cook, blog and share about. I jumped on that!  I am a huge fan and use the Reynold's Non-stick Foil practically everyday. I have a roll in the drawer and always a spare in the cabinet for when you finish the "roll in the drawer." Nothing is more infuriating than to pull out the foil to cover a long pan and BOOP!- you get a 3 inch strip and naked cardboard roll! Dammit, you say because you have no more.  Not me.  As soon as I open the new roll, I am shopping for the back up roll next week.  So yeah I am THAT devoted and it really is totally different that regular foil.  I especially love using it when I bake my bacon.  I do not fry it on the stove anymore.  350º for 20 minutes on the non stick foil....so much easier. 

Ok, back to pizza.  One of the recipes I choose was the Homemade Spinach Pizza Roll.  I love variations on a popular favorite!  Some people would call this a stromboli but whatever, my mouth and stomach don't care what it's called.  It was delish! Take a look at some of my notes after the recipe.

Homemade Spinach Pizza Roll
from Allrecipes.com, recipe by

1 tablespoon cornmeal
8 ounces bulk Italian sausage
1 (13.8 ounce) package refrigerated pizza dough
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1 cup fresh baby spinach
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 (8 ounce) can pizza sauce, warmed

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with Reynolds Wrap(R) Non-Stick Aluminum Foil; sprinkle with cornmeal. Set aside.
2. Brown sausage in large skillet on medium-high heat. Drain and set aside.
3. Unroll pizza dough onto prepared baking sheet. Carefully stretch or roll dough into a 13x10-inch rectangle. Arrange sausage on dough to within 1/2 inch of the edges. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of the mozzarella. Layer spinach on cheese. Top with the remaining 1/2 cup mozzarella and the Parmesan. Starting from a long side, roll up dough to make a 13-inch-long loaf. Pinch seam and ends to seal.
4. Place loaf, seam side down, on the prepared baking sheet. Brush with egg. Using a sharp knife, cut four 2-inch slits in top for steam to escape.
5. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. If necessary, cover the last 5 minutes of baking to prevent over browning. Remove from oven and slice into rounds to serve with pizza sauce.
#AllstarsReynolds 
#MealMagic
Cook's Notes:
1. Don't ask why my photos were taken at an angle.  I viewed them now and in the cropping process I was like WTH, was I thinking?  Stupid but oh well. I am NOT one of those photogs that take too many pictures.  I click for what is needed and CHOW DOWN, no time to mess around.
2.  This was actually my second attempt, the sausage went in that version.  It stuffed it too much and although it was ok....the internal picture wasn't as nice. So when I made TAKE 2.  I had only meatballs on hand.  Chopped up and sauteed olive oil.  They worked just fine.
3.  My first attempt was using a store brand canned pizza dough, I also rolled it out too thin, don't do that.  The second one I used Pillsbury and didn't push my luck on the thinness, I stretched it out just about 2 inches more than it's original size.  You can see the breading around holds the ingredients well. 
4.  i REALLY liked the spinach on this.  I hate how you can pile on tons of fresh spinach and it reduces down to nothing.
5.  Even though the Non-Stick foil really sticks less, the cornmeal really helps make this virtually non sitck.  I use cornmeal on my fresh pizza dough nights too.
6.  What I adore mostly about making pizza or pizza rolls/strombolis is that they are so versatile.  Whatever ingredients you have on hand will work and you will never get tired of Pizza Night each week.


Bite it!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What a Fabulous Pizza Roll this was . The bread / crust was flaky & delicious which complimented the other ingredients . Left me wanting more !!!! .