Stromboli

This Homemade Stromboli recipe uses my simple homemade pizza dough as a base for layering and rolling up your favorite meats, cheeses, and pizza sauce. They are so delicious and fun to eat, you will find yourself coming back to this recipe over and over.

Slice and serve warm with marinara sauce for game day, holiday parties, or weekends at home. If you love pizza as much as me, you can also try my Deep Dish Pizza, Pizza Monkey Bread, or this Combination Pizza.

Homemade stromboli filled with cheese and meat, sliced into pieces.

Homemade Stromboli Recipe

Did you know that all it really takes to make stromboli is rolling up your pizza rather than baking it flat? This recipe uses my easy homemade pizza dough that is rolled out into a rectangle, filled with sauce, cheese, meats, etc, and then rolled up like a cinnamon roll.

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Stromboli are like the Italian-American cousins of calzones. They’re both made with pizza dough and filled with traditional pizza fixings, but one originated here in the US and one is pure Italian. Just like pizza, you can fill your stromboli any way you like, although we do have a few suggestions below.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Customizable. Go ahead and add any of your favorite pizza sauces, toppings, and cheeses to your stromboli. It’s hard to make a bad one! You can easily make these for meat lovers, vegetarians, and everything in between.
Easy to prep ahead of time. If you make these from start to finish in the same day, they do take a bit of time. However, you can easily prepare either the dough or the entire strombolis and store them either in the fridge overnight or in the freezer for up to 2 months.
Always a favorite meal. Stromboli night is as big a hit in my house as pizza night. Because you can make them with your family’s favorite fillings, it’s almost impossible to not love them.

A loaf of this homemade stromboli recipe with slits across the top.

Key Ingredients You Will Need

Pizza dough: good stromboli starts with good pizza dough! You can find our entire guide to making homemade pizza dough here, but the only ingredients you’ll need are water, sugar, yeast, salt, flour, and a little olive oil.
Marinara sauce: use the same kind of marinara sauce or pizza sauce that you would to make pizza.
Parmesan cheese: this is sprinkled over the filling as well as the outside of the stromboli just before baking.
Meat: some of the classic meats to add to stromboli are pepperoni, ham, and salami. You can of course feel free to add whatever you like to add to pizza—bacon, shredded chicken, or even ground beef.
Mozzarella cheese: as the cheese melts in the oven, it helps hold all of the yummy filling inside of it. You could use straight mozzarella or a blend of pizza cheeses.
Egg wash: adding a light egg wash to the outside of the stromboli gives it a little shine and helps to stick Parmesan cheese before baking

How to Make Homemade Stromboli

Proof the yeast. Combine the warm water, sugar, and yeast and mix well. Let it sit for about 5-10 minutes, or until it becomes frothy and bubbly.
Mix the pizza dough. Once your yeast has “proofed,” add the olive oil, salt, and about 1 1/2 cups of flour. Mix until all the ingredients are completely combined. Add in the rest of the flour, about a 1/4 cup at a time until the dough pulls away from the edges of the bowl. Mix on low speed for another 1-2 minutes until the dough is nice and smooth, then transfer to a lightly floured surface and shape the dough into a ball.

Spreading pizza sauce and sliced meat across rolled out dough.

Shape into a dough ball. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let it rest in a warm place for about 30 minutes, or until doubled in size.
Roll, fill, and shape the dough. Roll the dough into a 10” x 14” rectangle, then add the marinara sauce, Parmesan cheese, pepperoni, ham, mozzarella cheese, Italian seasoning, and crushed red pepper. Leave a 1” border around the edge. Carefully roll up the dough from the long edge into a tight log. Pinch the seam and ends to seal. Place the seam-side down on the prepared baking sheet.

Adding pepperonis and Parmesan cheese across stromboli pizza dough.

Rolling up stromboli pizza, filled with sauce and cheese.

Egg wash. Use a pastry brush to brush the egg wash over the stromboli, then sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese and cut 3” slits over the top.
Bake. Bake in your preheated oven for 18-25 minutes, or until golden and the internal temperature of the stromboli is 200 degrees F.

Brushing egg wash over the top of stromboli dough.

Serve. Serve warm with marinara sauce for dipping.

A hand dipping a slice of stromboli into marinara sauce.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the difference between stromboli and a calzone?

The first difference between stromboli and calzone that comes to mind is that stromboli originated here in the US, while calzones are Italian. Otherwise, the biggest difference between a stromboli and a calzone is their shape. Stromboli is rolled up almost like a cinnamon roll, then cut into pieces once baked. A calzone is baked and served as an individual portion, usually shaped into a circle, filled, and folded over before baking to create a little pocket.

Can you freeze stromboli?

Yes! In fact, you can freeze stromboli both baked and unbaked. Either way, you will need to thaw it in the fridge overnight. The next day, preheat the oven and either reheat or egg wash and bake as directed.

What are the best stromboli fillings?

The best fillings for stromboli are those that will stay inside and be easy to eat. Avoid anything that is too liquidy or wet, such as a very runny sauce. You also wouldn’t want to add any toppings that are too large without cutting them down first because they will need to be able to be rolled up in the dough.

Some classic fillings include meats like pepperoni and salami, marinara sauce, or cooked veggies like mushrooms and spinach.

Stromboli Fillings

What would you add to your pizza? The same will (mostly) work for your stromboli. Here are a few of my favorites:

Sauces: marinara sauce or pizza sauce is always good. You could even make a white pizza stromboli, or go for more of a sauceless style and just brush the dough with garlic butter.
Cheese: mozzarella cheese is amazing for pizza because it gets so melty and stretchy. You could also use provolone, monterey jack, or any combination of the three.
Meats: just like with pizza, pepperoni is an all time favorite stromboli filling. Layer slices in a single even layer of the top. Other similar sliced meats to use would be Italian cold cuts like salami and prosciutto, deli ham, or even deli turkey. Shredded chicken and bacon would make another tasty variation.
Vegetarian: if you want to go all veggie, add sauteed mushrooms, spinach, broccoli, and/or bell peppers. Just be sure to remove any excess moisture before adding them to the stromboli.
Other toppings: Again, anything that works on pizza will work here. Fresh herbs, crushed red peppers, and olives will give you a great start!

Storage Instructions

Refrigerator: store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Reheating: To reheat, either microwave or reheat in a preheated 350 degree oven.