In this dish:
- one ball of no-knead pizza dough
- melted butter
- garlic
- Italian seasoning
- red pepper flakes
- pepperoni
- shredded cheddar
- shredded pecorino romano
- tomato sauce for dipping
I think we’ve all settled into a new way of existing. Mine goes something like this:
1. Alarm at 7:30, snooze ‘til 8, start the workday at 8:30 on the blue chair in my living room.
2. Go for a walk at noon, eat a sandwich, then work ‘til 4:30 or 5.
3. Get outside or do yoga before making dinner around 6:30.
4. Eat dinner while watching our shows of the moment: High Fidelity, Veep, or Little Fires Everywhere.
5. Clean up. Pet the kitty. Look at Bon Appetit recipes, read my book, and go to bed.
The introvert in me is well-suited to this kind of existence. But even she’s feeling the monotony.
Enter the pizza roll-up: a small but delicious rebellion against life’s current limitations.
This cheesy, greasy loaf is inspired by the pepperoni rolls at the Great Harvest bakery where I used to work. We’d roll out twenty dough balls at a time while passing around a bucket of garlic butter and scooping piles of mozzarella cheese. We’d make these special loaves every Friday and Saturday, and I tell you, the people came and the people ate.
It only hit me now, three years after leaving the bakery, that I can do this at home. It’s so wonderfully easy, and to such revelatory effect.
Here’s the scoop:
Stretch out your dough ball like you’re making a pizza pie.
Cover that circle of dough with a nice layer of garlic butter (this is non-negotiable).
Hit the pie with whatever toppings you’d like. I leave out the sauce because I'd rather dunk my rolls (take that, monotony!), but you do you.
Then, take that perfect pizza pie of yours and ROLL IT UP. Score it three times, kiss it with more garlic butter, and pop it in the oven at 500°F.
Now, these rolls do bake up differently than a pizza pie. I’ve been doing one initial bake for about 10 minutes; then I take it out, cut it in half (careful, it’s hot!)*, and put the two halves back in for another five minutes. At that point, I turn the oven to broil for another 3 to 5 minutes. There are a few variables here, so it's best to closely monitor this part of the process.
*I cut the roll in half to ensure the middle gets cooked, and because I like it when the cut ends get extra crispy with all that heat and grease from the pepperonis (and the butter, of course!).
Let your roll halves cool before slicing into smaller, dunkable bites. Or—OR—grasp a whole half like a hoagie and don’t look back.
If your experience is like mine, you’ll bite through the spongey, crispy, gooey layers of this pizza pinwheel and wonder if those flat old pies of yore could ever make you feel so alive.
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