This Valentine’s Day, serve up a freshly-baked Heart Shaped Stromboli of love. Making this homemade Stromboli recipe is surprisingly easy and guaranteed to thrill your loved ones.
It’s a lucky thing when you and your sweetheart share a love language. For my husband and I, that’s food. I love to feed people and he loves to be eat. We almost never venture out on Valentine’s Day; foregoing crowded restaurants and prefix menus, we opt instead to stay home and warm our bellies (and our hearts) with homemade comfort food.
Making our favorite foods into holiday-themed meals is the perfect way to make date nights in even more fun!
Heart Shaped Stromboli Recipe
One of husband’s favorites is Stromboli. This soft pillow of dough is stuffed with layers of melted cheese, spicy mustard, cured meats, and savory sausage. It is typically made in a square or rectangular shape, but I thought it would be fun to try molding this recipe into something a little more romantic. Enter the Heart Shaped Stromboli.
Stromboli can be prepared with a wide variety of stuffings. Think about the kinds of things you might find in a calzone, and you’ll find a whole delicious world of inspiration to pull from. Meatballs, chicken parmesan, or eggplant are all wonderful choices. One of my personal favorite variations is Broccoli Stromboli, made with garlic pesto, mozzarella, and of course, plenty of broccoli.
My husband and I have very different ideas about portion size when it comes to Stromboli. In my personal opinion, each of these hearts appears to me as a Stromboli built for two. He, however, would not want to share. This recipe makes four hefty Strombolis, enough to feed four very hungry people or eight people with more reasonable appetites.
Leftovers may be frozen and stored for up to three months. To reheat, bake at 350ºF for 15-20 minutes.
Ingredients
- 4 cups flour
- 1 ⅓ cup warm water
- 2 ounces olive oil, plus more for oiling dough
- 1 package (1 ¼ teaspoon) active dry yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ pounds sweet Italian sausage, cooked
- ½ pound sliced american cheese
- ½ pound thin sliced smoked ham
- ½ pound thin sliced genoa salami
- 2 cups mozzarella cheese
- ¼ cup stone ground mustard
- ¼ cup spicy brown mustard
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Combine water and yeast in bowl of stand mixer. Wait 30 seconds, then add oil, salt, and 1 cup flour. Mix on low speed, adding remaining flour 1 cup at a time. Continue mixing until dough comes together and becomes mostly smooth.
- Remove dough from bowl and coat with oil. Return oiled dough to bowl and cover with damp kitchen towel. Allow dough to rise for 1 ½ hours.
- Preheat oven to 450ºF.
- Punch down dough and divide into four parts.
- Roll one part out on floured surface to form a 10” circle.
- Place ¼ of the american cheese into the center of the dough, creating a rectangular footprint. Add ¼ of the smoked ham next. Spread about 2 tablespoons of each type of mustard over the ham, then place ¼ of the salami on top followed by ¼ of the cooked sausage and ½ cup mozzarella cheese.
- Fold the sides of the dough in as far as it can be easily stretched and press it down firmly to secure. Fold the top of the dough down so that it covers the ingredients, then carefully roll the Stromboli over so that the top is smooth.
- Carefully push the sides up and shape the bottom into a V shape with your hands to create a heart shape. Transfer the Stromboli to a baking sheet.
- Repeat last four steps with the remaining ingredients to create 3 more Strombolis.
- Brush tops of each Stromboli with melted butter and sprinkle with Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until dough becomes crispy and slightly browned.
Notes
Home Chef Tip: For an everyday Strombili, fold the stuffed dough into a square or rectangle.
We hope you love this Heart Shaped Stromboli Recipe from SoFabFood Contributor, Mary Helen from Mary Makes Good, as much as we do. If you love this delightful recipe, stop by our Valentine’s Day section to find more like it. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter so that you never miss a single recipe, and for daily recipe inspiration, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Pinterest. Enjoy!
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