This Spiral Stromboli with Three Fillings (of Italian sausage and spinach, mushrooms and onions and sundried tomato and cheeses) is a product of insomnia. I am a chronic insomniac and when I can’t sleep through the night, rather than frustratingly toss and turn in bed, I go to a comfortable armchair in the another room and watch TV, often food show re-runs until I fall asleep.
A year or so ago in the middle of the night, I stumbled on re-runs of Jamie Oliver’s cooking show about training disadvantaged Australian youth in chef skills, in advance of opening of his Fifteen restaurant in Melbourne, Australia. In this particular segment, Jamie engaged his mentor Gennaro Contaldo, a London-based Italian chef and restaurateur, to teach the student chefs-in-training a master class on foccacia and other Italian breads. At one point in the video, while the voice-over was talking about something else, I watched Contaldo roll out a long narrow sheet of dough along the length of which he arranged assorted pizza-like fillings. Then he rolled up the dough like a jelly roll and spiraled the entire roll into a pan. Essentially, the jelly roll formed the fillings into a spiral and the entire bread was then spiraled as well. After baking, thin layers of the fillings were visible in the cut bread.
I was fascinated by this double-spiraled bread. Unfortunately, no recipe nor name of this bread was provided. Over the next few months, whenever the show was re-broadcast, I watched that segment carefully, closely observing what Contaldo did. I understood the fillings, but I could not discern the dough recipe. Initially I thought it was foccacia, so I tried Jamie Oliver’s and Gennaro Contaldo’s foccacia recipes and quickly learned that the dough was too soft to roll out and fill.
After a little recipe research, I discovered that Contaldo’s bread resembled a stromboli, an American creation with an Italian name. This bread, usually made by rolling up a thin yeast dough topped with savory ingredients and then baked, was named by its unknown creators, either in Pittsburgh or Spokane, either after Mt. Stromboli, a volcano in the Tyrrhenian Sea or after a 1950s Italian movie starring Ingrid Bergmann. Thus, the bread Contaldo made on the video, although of an uncharacteristic spiral shape, looked similar to a stromboli. (Contaldo’s bread may be called something else in Italy.) I also learned from reviewing numerous recipes that the dough used for stromboli is either Italian bread dough or pizza dough or even bought dough such as Pillsbury™ refrigerated classic pizza crust.
Since Gennaro Contaldo inspired this Spiral Stromboli with Three Fillings, I turned to his pizza recipe for the dough. I improvised with fillings, trying to replicate what he did in the Australian video. Here is the result: a dramatic coiled stromboli of soft dough generously filled with flavorful ingredients. I’ve served this bread for dinner with an Italian chicken brodo, like a stracciatella, or cream of celery soup and as a component to a basket of assorted breads for brunch. This Spiral Stromboli with Three Fillings looks dramatic and tastes great.
Spiral Stromboli with Three Fillings
Dough, adapted from Gennaro Contaldo at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-SJGQ2HLp8:
18 ounces (500g) bread flour, plus extra for dusting
1 teaspoon sea salt
¼ ounce (7g) package dried active yeast
1⅓ cups (325 ml) warm water
1 tablespoon semolina dusting
1 tablespoon butter
1 egg
Italian Sausage and spinach filling:
4.5 ounces (126 g) frozen chopped spinach, thawed
8 ounces (225 g) Italian sausage, hot or mild
3⁄4 cup red onion, minced
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Mushroom, onion and parmesan filling:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, sliced
10 ounces (340 g) cremini mushrooms, sliced
2 tablespoons fresh oregano, chopped
1 cup (80 g) Parmigiano Reggiano, grated
Salt and pepper to taste
Sundried tomatoes and provolone filling:
1 cup sundried tomatoes, in olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 cup basil leaves
1 pinch red pepper flakes (or more to taste)
½ pound (225 g) provolone, sliced thin
Preparing dough: Place flour and salt in a large mixer bowl fitted with dough hook. Combine yeast with 1⅓ cups (325ml) lukewarm water and stir to dissolve. Then, with mixer running, gradually add yeast mixture to flour, mixing well until you get a rough dough. If the dough is too sticky, add a little more flour, a tablespoon at a time. Shape dough into a ball and cover with a tea towel and leave to rest for 5 minutes. On a flour-dusted surface, knead dough by hand for 8 to 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Shape dough into a ball and place into an oiled bowl, covered with plastic wrap, and leave to rise in a warm place for around 2 hours, or until doubled in size.
Prepare fillings while dough is rising.
Prepare Italian sausage and spinach filling: Drain all liquid from thawed spinach and place in a large bowl. Brown sausage in a large frying pan and drain fat. Add spinach to sausage and fry for a few minutes to evaporate remaining moisture. Stir in seasonings and set aside to cool to room temperature.
Prepare Mushroom and onion filling: Heat olive oil until shimmering in a skillet. Add onions, cooking until golden and almost transparent, about 20 min.
Add mushrooms and a bit more oil if needed. Cook for approximately 10 minutes. Stir in herbs, parmesan, salt and pepper. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
Prepare Sundried tomato and fontina filling: Drain sundried tomatoes, reserving the olive oil in which they were canned. Blend all remaining ingredients, except olive oil, in a food processor. Start food processor and slowly drizzle in enough reserved olive oil until the mixture becomes spreadable. Stop processor to scrape down the sides. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
Assembling: Preheat oven to 425 ºF (220ºC). Butter a 10-11 inch (27-28 cm) diameter springform pan and coat with semolina. Prepare egg wash by beating egg with 1 tablespoon water in a small bowl and set aside.
Once dough has doubled in size, punch dough to deflate and form into a ball. On a flour-dusted surface, use your hands to stretch dough into a rectangle, then roll with rolling pin to a strip approximately 12 inch (30.5 cm) by 40 inches (39 cm) length, a uniform ¼ inch thick.
With the long side facing you, spread the filling in rows along the long side of the dough and within ½ inch. of edges. Make sure the various fillings are spread in a thin layer of equal thickness that touch each other, topping the sundried tomato filling with provolone slices. Alternatively, you can layer the fillings one on top of the other, spreading each on the entire sheet of dough, starting with sundried tomato, then mushroom and finally sausage.
Starting along the long side closest to you, roll up tightly jelly-roll style, pinch ends to seal. Then, roll up filled dough into a spiral roll and fit seam side down into prepared pan. Using a pastry brush, paint dough with egg wash. With a skewer, pierce dough along outside edge of stromboli to minimize cracking. Cover dough with dishtowel and let rise for 1 hour.
Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown. Check baking carefully, covering top of stromboli with aluminum foil, if browning too quickly. Cool on a wire rack.
To serve, cut stromboli in half with a serrated knife and then each half into slices. Slices can be cut in half as well.
Slices can be reheated for 10 minutes in a 350°F (180°C) oven. Serve slices with soup and salad for lunch or dinner. This Spiral Stromboli is also great for breakfast.
Leftover Spiral Stromboli will keep in the refrigerator for 4 days tightly wrapped in plastic and in a zippered freezer bag in freezer for up to one month.
Yield: 10 servings
Photo credits: Slava Johnson
One year ago this month: http://www.kitchenepiphanies.com/istanbul-and-turkish-meze/
Two years ago this month: http://www.kitchenepiphanies.com/norwegian-pear-cake-not-lost-in-translation/