It'za Meatball Stromboli!

This recipe was inspired by my recent travels, where I encountered an awesome restaurant (with delivery service to the hotel) that served a hotdog, topped with mozzarella cheese, wrapped in pizza dough, with marinara dipping sauce. Um, yeah. Pretty delicious.

Fast forward to the next week, when I'm home and thinking, "Man, that was a good recipe, but I don't want to eat a hotdog again. The mozzarella's a low fat cheese, I'm sure I could make whole wheat pizza dough, buy pasta sauce, add some veggies...if only I could think of a healthy substitute protein." Cue frozen turkey meatballs. Now we're in business! I did make my own pizza dough in my bread machine the day before I planned to serve the strombolis, but if you could find it, store-bought would probably be (almost) as healthy and delicious.

First, the pizza dough:

Into bread machine, add:

2/3 c. warm water
1/2 tsp. honey or sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3/4c. white or bread flour
1 c. + 2 Tbs whole wheat flour
4 Tbs ground flaxseed
1 1/4 tsp yeast


Now, the assembly. You will need:

Pizza dough (1 lb)
20 turkey meatballs
1 1/2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
1c. pepperoncini peppers, drained
1 1/4 tsp. Italian herbs
1 1/4 tsp. Garlic powder
1 jar marinara or other red pasta sauce, for dipping.

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
2. Separate the pizza dough into 5 pieces.
3. Flour the counter and a rolling pin and roll each dough ball out to about 1/8" thickness, big enough to fit four meatballs across and roll. (I do steps 3-7 one stromboli at a time). You're going to eat them, so they don't have to be pretty, just big enough to contain the goodness.
4. Add 1/4c mozzarella cheese, 4 meatballs, Italian herbs, Garlic Powder and pepperoncinis to each dough round/rectangle.
5. Roll up each Stromboli, with the 4 meatballs in a line. Tuck in the sides first, then gently stretch the dough over the meatballs and roll until the other end meets the dough.
6. Poke 3 small vent holes in the top of each Stromboli. Make sure ends are sealed by pinching closed any open sides.
7. Place Strombolis on baking sheet (seam side down), spray the tops lightly with cooking spray, and sprinkle with 3-4 strands of mozzarella cheese.
8. Bake for 18 minutes, or until golden brown and heated through.
9. Serve with warmed marinara sauce.