Pizza Rolls

Who doesn’t love pizza? I mean, what’s not to love? Soft hot bread, gooey cheese, a good sauce and perhaps some toppings. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it, and it’s only 10:30 in the morning!

The concept of combining some sort of bread product and cheese has been a favorite of mine since childhood. I’m fairly confident that I created French bread pizza before ever seeing it elsewhere. And I was a wizard with Wonder® bread and some ketchup! Biscuits? Did those, too. But when I saw the pre-made pizza dough, I knew I was in heaven.

Here’s an easy recipe for pizza rolls using prepared dough. To make it even simpler, you can use store-bought pizza sauce or spaghetti sauce. Have fun experimenting with toppings to make it your own.

Ingredients:

1 can prepared pizza dough (the refrigerated kind)
1/2 to 2/3 cup marinara sauce, pizza sauce or prepared spaghetti sauce
1 cup (or more) shredded mozzarella cheese
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon olive oil
garlic powder
Italian seasoning

Optional: any pizza toppings you like

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400°.

Spray a 9 x 9 baking pan with cooking spray. Alternatively, lightly grease pan with olive oil.

Sprinkle a bit of flour on a large cutting board or other large, clean surface. Open can of dough and unroll dough on floured surface.

Spread sauce over dough, leaving about 1 inch down one long side free of sauce. This will be the closing seam.

Sprinkle mozzarella cheese evenly over sauce.

Sprinkle Parmesan cheese evenly over the top.

Starting on the long side, roll dough up into a log.

Sprinkle surface with some Italian seasonings, then roll the log over them to embed some of the seasonings in the dough. This step isn’t absolutely necessary, as you will sprinkle the cut rolls with seasoning as well. But this step makes the rolls look even better when baked.

Wrap dough log in parchment paper and freeze for fifteen to twenty minutes. Alternatively, you can use wax paper, aluminum foil or plastic wrap instead of parchment paper, but parchment works best. Chilling the dough is an important step, though, as it makes it a lot easier to cut the log into rolls.

Once dough is chilled, cut log into 8 pieces, about 1-1/2 inches each. The easiest way for me to do this is the Rule of Half. Cut the log in half. Cut each piece in half. You now have four pieces. Cut each piece in half again, and you have eight pieces.

Place rolls in baking pan. Depending on how you do it, you’ll either have one corner open, or a hole in the middle. Either way is acceptable, so go with your instincts on this one.

Sprinkle tops with Italian seasoning and garlic powder to taste.

Bake at 400° for 20-25 minutes. They’re done when the dough is nicely browned and the cheese is all bubbly.

Remove from oven and let sit for five minutes before serving.

Serve with additional Parmesan cheese and more sauce for dipping.

Notes:

As I mentioned earlier, you can add any pizza toppings you enjoy. I like to do them with mushrooms and bacon – what I call Hobbit Style. Try out several combinations and see which you like best. Also, for a party, feel free to do several of these, each with different toppings.

If you like White Pizza, or Pesto Pizza, you can certainly adapt this recipe to use a sauce other than tomato.

Pizza rolls are great as a snack, and as an appetizer (one per person). You can turn them into a full meal by adding a nice salad and a green vegetable (asparagus works very well).

I was going to finish with a play on “roll” but I’m not going down that road. Wait… I just did, didn’t I? Yeesh! There’s no hope for me. Regardless, have fun adapting this recipe to your own special taste, and don’t forget to

Play with your food!

Lane

Did you like this recipe? What recipes would you like to learn? Leave me a comment and tell me your thoughts! (And don’t forget to LIKE this post!) Share it using the tiles below.

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