Seek and Ye Shall Find...

Here's to just a bit of success I had over the weekend.

Aimee and I have started to make stromboli on Sunday for lunch after church.  It's tasty, easy to make, and there's even some sentimental value in this meal as it was the first thing I ever made for her.  Naturally, (no pun intended) I made it my mission to find the best possible ingredients not only for taste and nutritional value, but also because it better be of good quality if it's something we're going to make a habit of eating. 

When I made this dish in college, I would use a prepared pizza crust from the tube, good ol' shredded mozz, and run-of-the-mill pepperoni.  Over the past few weeks I've experimented with a few different things, but now with fresh, whole wheat pizza dough made with unbleached and unbromated flour, fresh mozz, and the ingredient of the hour: uncured pepperoni.

I have been searching high and low for this last, prized piece to my rolled up puzzle, and I finally found it this weekend.  I know everyone will roll their eyes when I say Whole Foods was the last place I looked, but it was.  Of the local health food stores, my Whole Foods is the most inconvenient to get to, but after I had inquired at my usual places and come up empty-handed, I ended up at Whole Foods to be pleasantly surprised.  

I was looking for uncured pepperoni.  I was willing to settle for anything as long as it didn't have all the sodium preservatives (namely sodium nitrate), MSG, BHA, or BHT.  I came upon a fantastic option, although not ideal only because it's made with beef and pork, as opposed to turkey which typically has 50% less fat.  Despite that fact, I'm very happy and can eat my stromboli with a clear conscience.  The added bonus with this brand is that the beef and pork used to make this pepperoni is raised without hormones or antibiotics!

I'll be honest, when compared by taste in the strombolis, these two versions of pepperoni don't very much differ.  But I'm big on being educated about what I feed my body, and this new option allows me to feel much better. The fresh dough and cheese really make a difference in the taste, so that is highly recommended for those who desire to try it out:

Ingredients:

One ball of whole wheat pizza dough

Freshly Shredded Mozzerella

Uncured Pepperoni

Direx:

Allow the dough to get to room temperature.  Stretch out into a large rectangle on a lightly floured service, about the size of a cookie baking sheet pan.

Once stretched, cover with a layer of the mozz and about a dozen pepperonis evenly dispersed.

Throw a few torn up fresh basil leaves over this as well if desired.

Roll dough starting with one of the short sides of the rectangle.  When picking it up to place it on a lightly oiled or corn meal dusted cookie pan, give it a stretch so it is about as long as the pan. 

Place on the pan and bake at 350 for about 25 minutes or until dough is cooked through.

Now that I've made these qualitative changes in ingredients, I only wish stromboli was actually a healthy thing to eat so frequently...