Pizza Dough - There's an App for That.

Now put away those cell phones; I'm talking appetizer, not a networking application. Saturday night, New Year's Eve, we spent with friends Heidi and Sean, their children and another couple. Nothing fancy, just good people getting together to celebrate the end of the old year; and looking forward to lots of laughter. Oh, we laughed and laughed till our sides hurt; it felt great!

Even though it was a small get-together, it was an opportunity to do a little showing off in Heidi's kitchen. No dips or prepackaged appetizers to end the year; I was going to make something yummy to remember. First thing I did was get a 4 quart crock pot of homemade pasta sauce going. Actually, I did that on Friday, so besides having a dipping sauce for my appetizer, I made stuffed shells for dinner that night. No, it wasn't the typical meat sauce I use with stuffed shells, but they came out yummy just the same.

So Saturday rolls around and it was a lazy kind of day. Roy was engrossed in "SkyRim; The Elder Scrolls 5" and I watched reruns of "The Marx Brothers" movies. When it was time to make the appetizer, I was raring to go. I got all the ingredients together in order of preparation; set up the jelly rolls pans and went to work. By now you're wondering, "what the heck are you making anyway?" Thanks for reminding me to tell you...Sicilian Pepperoni Rolls similiar to those served at "Old Chicago".

To get two trays of rolls together, 20 on each, only took about a half hour; they are that easy and quick to make. It takes a lot longer though when someone is carrying one of the trays to the refrigerator and drops it. No Roy, you are not going to be hearing the last of this for a long while. "But it just slipped out of my hands" he says and since I did not see him do it, I can't really say how it happened, but I can imagine. He was doing the Italian accent thing as he carried them and I could picture him carrying the tray one handed like a waiter when suddenly.....all over the floor.

What to do, what to do, since I'm out of pizza dough and off to the store, which was luckily still open, to get a roll of Pillsbury Classic Pizza Dough. It worked out fine and while the Pillsbury dough baked up thinner than my dough, the rolls tasted amazing and the dipping sauce went great with them. There was not one left and Heidi has requested the recipe, so here you go girl.

Sicilian Pepperoni Rolls

Ingredients:

flour
12 oz. homemade pizza dough or 1 canister of Pillsbury Classic Pizza Dough
1 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp Italian herbal mix
1 cup Italian cheese mix
1/2 cup diced pepperoni
grated Parmesan cheese

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 425F. Spray a jelly roll pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Lightly flour a wooden board and roll out the dough to a 14"x20" rectangle; mix the olive oil with the herbal mixture and lightly brush the rolled out dough. Sprinkle the cheese and pepperoni over the oiled dough. Starting at the top edge of dough, carefully begin rolling towards the bottom edge; make sure to keep the roll tight; the oil will help seal the roll.

Cut off a little of the far ends of the roll; cut the roll into one inch pieces. Carefully transfer each cut piece to the jelly roll pan, cut side up. Lightly dab the herbal oil mixture, and sprinkle a little grated Parmesan cheese, onto each piece.

Bake for 15-20 minutes; until dough is golden brown. Remove to serving plate and serve with dipping sauce.

Makes 20 pieces.

Mary Cokenour