Recipe: Hawaiian Stromboli

A couple nice slices of Hawaiian Stromboli

Hawaiian Stromboli came about because we have some Hawaiian pizza haters among our confinement group, and wanted to prove them wrong. Stromboli is simply a pizza with a different (and arguably better*) form factor, but it allowed us to slip the dreaded pineapple under the radar. We sautéed the pineapple chunks in olive oil to reduce the liquid (a trick picked up from King Arthur’s recipe) and used feta, salty prosciutto and salt-cured olives to balance the sweetness. Success! The chief hater went from “an abomination” to “you can make that again”. Serves 4-6.

Ingredients (all measurements are approximate):
Pizza dough, approx. a pound of your favorite (we used half a recipe of our overnight pizza dough with the addition of a bit of olive oil)
½ c tomato sauce
¼ c feta cheese, crumbled
½ c mozzarella, shredded
½ c pineapple, cut into ½ inch chunks
¼ tart black or green olives, pitted
4 oz prosciutto or other salty ham, chopped into ½ inch pieces
1 egg, beaten

Hawaiian Stromboli ready to be rolled and baked. Leave the top 1/2 clear for your egg wash.

Method: preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place a silicon pad or parchment paper in a half-sheet pan. Spread out the dough  till it comes close to the edges of the pad. Spoon the tomato sauce onto the dough, leaving a strip at the top length-wise that is about 1/3 of the width. Sauté the pineapple chunks in olive oil over medium heat for about 5 minutes until they start to color, tossing to expose all sides; if using canned pineapple you might want to squeeze out some of the juice first with a paper towel.

Add the cheeses, pineapple and ham in any order you like, reserving a bit for topping. Finish with a row of olives down the center. Brush the beaten egg generously onto the un-sauced strip then roll up the stromboli, starting at the bottom, making it as tight as you can (a spatula helps to lift up the dough). Press down the top to seal with the egg-covered strip. Garnish by brushing on the rest of the egg, then sprinkling on a little cheese. Make a few diagonal slashed up and down the length of the rolled-up dough so air can escape.

Hawaiian Stromboli, done

Bake in 450 oven for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Slice crosswise and serve hot.

*Why better? Because stromboli is a more efficient hand food you can easily pack up like a sandwich to take with you wherever you are headed. And it’s delicious cold or at room temperature.