Thursday's Eats ~ Spinach and Sausage Stromboli

I have been wanting to make stromboli for . . . five years.  Seriously. :)  When I made Lasagna Soup last week I had leftovers (spinach and sausage) that I needed to use up.  I remembered the one time I have had stromboli that it had spinach in it, so I decided to give it a try.

I started with 1/2 of my normal pizza dough recipe.  I greased a cookie sheet and rolled out the dough.

I then browned 1/2 pound of chicken Italian sausage.

After the sausage browned I added 1/2 a bag of fresh spinach.

Within two minutes, the spinach wilts down to almost nothing.

See what I mean? :)

I also used the pizza sauce recipe I normally use . . . 1 8 oz can tomato sauce.  Mix in Italian seasonings, garlic powder and salt to taste.  Easy peasy.

Next, sprinkle 1 cup of cheese on top.  I used a 6 Italian cheese mix.

Now, comes the fun part!  Fold 1/2 the dough over the filling.

Fold the ends up and pinch the dough together to seal.  Wrap the other side up and pinch the seam together.

Flip it over on the cookie sheet, seam down.

Bake at 350* on the middle rack for about 30 minutes. You want the outside to resemble a loaf of bread, golden brown.

Slice and serve!

This recipe is a nice change from pizza and has a bread-ier consistency.  Caleb and I really liked it!  Since the pizza dough is 1/2 whole wheat, I used chicken sausage (which is super low fat), spinach and 2% cheese...this is a decently healthy meal. Add a garden salad on the side and you'd be set! :)

Ingredients:

Pizza Dough

1 cup of your favorite sauce (I use 8 oz can tomato sauce mixed with Italian seasonings, garlic powder and salt to taste.)

1/2 lb Italian chicken sausage

1/2 of a 4 oz bag of fresh spinach

1 cup cheese 

Prepare dough an hour in advance (allows time for rising).  Roll out half of the dough onto a greased cookie sheet.

Next, brown Italian sausage.  Once browned, add the fresh spinach and put a lid on the pot.  This will allow the spinach to wilt faster.

Spread sauce down the center of the rolled out dough.  Add cooked sausage/spinach mixture.  Sprinkle cheese on top.  Fold one long side of dough over mixture.  Fold up ends and pinch to seal.  Fold other long side over and pinch the seam to seal.  Flip stromboli over so the seam is touching the cookie sheet.

Bake at 350* for 30 minutes or until golden brown on top.  Slice and serve.