Recipe: Spinach and Tomato Stromboli

SPINACH AND TOMATO STROMBOLI

Favorite pizza dough (enough for a 12-inch round pizza)
4 cloves garlic
2 slices red onion
1 cup fresh spinach (whole leaf)
4 slices (thick) vine ripened tomato
1 1/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
Spaghetti sauce (for dipping)

Filling:
Peel and slice the garlic into medium slices. If you don't like biting into garlic, you may want to slice it even finer. Slice the red onion (1/8") into one or two slices. More if you really like onion, less if you don't. Quarter the slices. Slice the tomato in the same way. I usually use about four tomato slices. Tear the spinach leaves by hand into smaller pieces.

Dough:
Prepare the dough and stretch onto a pizza pan (non-stick, mesh, pizza stone, etc. Whatever you prefer) as if you're making a pizza. Except make it a bit more oval shaped than round. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Combine:
Now, sprinkle about 1/2 the cheese onto the dough along the longer axis of the crust. Leave about 1/2" on each end with no cheese. Next, spread the garlic, onion, tomato, and spinach onto the cheese. Last, sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top of that, and add the oregano and basil to taste.

Now to create the stromboli:
The idea is to wrap the two shorter sides of the dough around the filling 'till they meet, then press them together. Pinch together the ends to seal it. Try to get the shape to be more or less cylindrical in cross section. I like to form a slight arc, so that everything fits better on the pan.

Bake:
Place in the oven and bake for about 10-15 minutes. You may want to check at about ten minutes just to make sure that everything's OK. Bake until the crust is a golden brown.

Serve with heated spaghetti sauce for dipping.

HINTS:
- For a browner crust, brush with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic powder and parsley flakes.
- For easier handling, keep your hands flour-coated while shaping stromboli.
- To retain shape, form the stromboli into a cylinder that is taller than it is wide, so that when the cheese melts, it doesn't flatten
out.