Zesty, cheesy and perfect for pizza night this Italian Meat Stromboli recipe is an easy and delicious addition to your weeknight routine!

We do a lot of pizza round here. Like a lot! We have 4 kids to feed and sometimes are short on time, so we love to whip up pizza whenever we can. Sometimes its frozen and sometimes it’s homemade but whatever version it is it always goes over well.
The dough used in this Stromboli recipe is my all time favorite go-to dough of choice. It has minimal ingredients and whips up quick (minus the rising time). We have used it for breadsticks, pizza crust and stuffed cheesy bread and it has never failed us once!
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STROMBOLI AND A CALZONE?
A calzone is pretty much just a pizza folded in half, stuffed with your favorite pizza toppings and baked. A calzone is rolled so it has layers of your crust and toppings in each and every slice.
WHAT IS IN A STROMBOLI?
You can pretty much put anything you want in your Stromboli. The basics are starting with either a pizza dough or a bread dough and you stuff it with cheese, pizza sauce and cold cut meats. We like to mix it up and do different variations of our strombolis making them chicken, supreme, Philly cheesesteak and so many others.
HOW LONG IS STROMBOLI COOKED?
Stromboli is usually baked in a 400 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes depending on the size. They don’t take long to bake up and they feed a crowd!
With our kids in so many activities throughout the year, we like to keep some homemade pizza dough on hand for the nights where we want to whip out some regular pizza or these delicious Pepperoni Strombolis!
If you like these you might also like this Italian Pasta Salad, Supreme Pizza Sliders and these Supreme Pizza Egg Rolls!
Watch the video below where Rachel will walk you through every step of this recipe. Sometimes it helps to have a visual, and we’ve always got you covered with our cooking show. You can find the complete collection of recipes on YouTube, Facebook Watch, or our Facebook Page, or right here on our website with their corresponding recipes.
Stromboli

Dough
- 3/4 cup warm water
- 1 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Filling
- 1/2 cup pizza sauce
- 1/2 pound sliced Italian cold cuts or pepperoni
- 1-1 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Topping
- 1 egg beaten
- 1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
- Parsley
- In bowl of stand mixer whisk together water, sugar and yeast . Add in flour and salt and with dough hook mix on medium speed just until dough comes together.
- Transfer to a lightly greased bowl, cover and let rise for 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 400. Turn dough out onto lightly floured piece of parchment paper and roll out into a large rectangle.
- Spread your pizza sauce over dough until about 1″ away from edges. Top with sliced cold cuts or pepperoni and then sprinkle with cheese.
- Roll up cinnamon roll style and transfer parchment paper to a baking sheet. Brush with lightly beaten egg and sprinkle with parmesan and parsley.
- Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes until golden. Serve hot with extra pizza sauce if desired.
First time I’ve ever made a stromboli…I used my homemade pizza sauce . The dough recipe is really good easy to make and work with. My husband loved it!! I will definitely make this again. Thanks so much!!
This is by far the easiest dough I have ever dealt with. Made a double batch, came out wonderful! Family of 7- We all loved it! Thank you!
Hi Rachel! This is your Great-Aunt Ann. I made the Stromboli and we both loved it. Uncle Ken says I can make it again! I did add sliced mushrooms and sliced olives because we love them and I had some in the fridge. Made the Stromboli harder to roll, but I managed! I also divided the dough and made two because I used goat cheese for Uncle Ken and regular for me. (His was the bigger one!)
Love your site! I also made Colcannon again for about the 5th time. We really like it.
Best and most comprehensive video … today I’m making my 5th one for a late lunch …my 14 year old granddaughter used this recipe and video and her siblings devoured it!
Love your recipes!!! Today I’m using hot Italian sausage cooked and crumbled first, a bit of left over pepperoni. Left over homemade spaghetti sauce and the last two slices of provolone cheese and of course mozzarella….. my husband is dying as it’s in the oven now….smells amazing!
Made it 5 times. Perfect every time.
Thank you for sharing.
A family favorite
Champion
First Stromboli and hey was it good!!
Used a homemade chilli salsa for the sauce(a little extra umph). Ingredients were as in your recipe.
Really impressed and will make a few different variations next time, maybe chicken and smoked bacon with a creamy cheese sauce.
Many thanks from England
Super yummy and really easy to put together. We will be making this on the regular. Thanks for the recipe!
This was awesome!!! Better than any restaurant! And easy to follow recipe,!
Absolutely delicious! My family loved it and we plan on making it again soon! Possibly as smaller versions, more like pepperoni rolls.
This is now my go to pizza dough recipe. So easy and delicious !! We now have pizza weekly.
I just made it my familoves it it delicious
This is a good recipe. It was crispy in the outside but soft inside. My family loved it.
This was amazing. I used Pepperoni and Italian sausage. Only I did different was use store bought fresh pizza dough from Publix.My family was asking for more. Next time I will have to make 2! Thanks a bunch!
When using Italian sausage, should you cook it first to make it less greasy?
Yes, precook Italian sausage.
Made this and it was awesome. I have a question: Can this be put together earlier in the day and stored in refrigerator before baking?
i followed the recipe & didn’t do the slits before baking as it was not in the instructions…
Looks pretty good can’t wait to dig in… Note for next time always watch whole video & read full recipe before starting. Thanks for another great recipe 🙂