Now I'm all for making bread from scratch, but this is one of the few recipes that I would recommend using store-bought frozen bread dough. It will be so good that no one will know unless you admit it.
You can stuff stromboli with pretty much whatever you like, but having ingredients of different sizes (ex. both sliced meats and chunks of sausage) seems to help. Otherwise, it can seem like there's too much bread.
To save time, I recommend cooking/prepping the ingredients the day before you plan on making the stromboli.
Ingredients
1 loaf frozen bread dough, thawed and risen according to package instructions
Ranch dressing and/or marinara sauce for dipping
1 egg
provolone cheese, deli sliced
mozzarella cheese, shredded
sliced pepperonis
pancetta, deli sliced
bacon, cooked and broken into large pieces
bulk Italian sausage, cooked and crumbled
ham, deli sliced
chicken breast-marinated, pounded thin, sauteed, and then sliced
marinade: garlic, Italian-herbed olive oil, splash of white wine, salt, pepper, oregano
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a large piece of tinfoil and place on baking sheet. The piece of foil should be long enough to fold both sides over the middle to form a tent later.
2. Place the bread dough onto the baking sheet and roll into a large rectangle.
3. Place the toppings down the center of the dough, leaving room on the ends and sides. I usually begin with the sliced provolone and end with the shredded mozzarella.
4. Use scissors to cut strips in the dough, as the dashed lines in the diagram indicate. Then fold the strips over to "braid" into a loaf. If there are any significant gaps, you can pin them with toothpicks, but be sure to remove them before you eat.
5. Crack the egg into a bowl and gently whisk to break the yolk. Brush it onto the loaf. This will give the stromboli a nice shine to compliment the golden color. Fold in the sides of the foil to make a tent around the stromboli and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
6. Open the foil and cook for an additional 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown.
7. Slice and serve with ranch and/or marinara for dipping.
