Stromboli (food)
Italian-American dish
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stromboli are a type of baked bread filled with various Italian cheeses (typically mozzarella) and Italian cold cuts (typically salami, capocollo, and bresaola) or vegetables, and marinara sauce, served hot. The dough is either Italian bread dough or pizza dough. Stromboli are an Italian-American dish invented in Philadelphia by the mid-20th century.[1] The dish is ultimately named for the volcanic island off the coast of Sicily, by way of the 1950 Roberto Rossellini film of the same name.[2]
Homemade stromboli | |
| Type | Turnover |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | United States |
| Region or state | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Created by | Nazzareno Romano |
| Main ingredients | Bread dough, cheese, meat or vegetables |
Stromboli are similar to a calzone or scaccia, and the dishes are sometimes confused.[3][2] Unlike calzones, which are always stuffed and folded into a crescent shape, stromboli are typically rolled or folded into a cylinder, and may sometimes contain a thin layer of tomato sauce on the inside.[4]
Preparation
Many American pizza shops serve stromboli using pizza dough that is folded in half with fillings, similar to a half-moon-shaped calzone.[2] At other establishments, stromboli are made with a square-shaped pizza dough that can be topped with any pizza toppings and is then rolled into a cylindrical jelly roll shape and baked. Other variations include adding pizza sauce or deep-frying, in a similar manner as a panzerotto.[5]
Origins
There are several claims regarding the origin of the name stromboli for food in the United States.
Romano's Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria claims to have first used the name in 1950 in Essington, Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia, courtesy of Nazzareno Romano, an Italian immigrant. The pizzeria owner had experimented with pizza imbottita, or "stuffed pizza", and added ham, cotechino, cheese and peppers into a pocket of bread dough.[5] His future brother-in-law suggested he name it after the recently released movie Stromboli, notorious for an off-screen affair between married actress Ingrid Bergman and married director Roberto Rossellini, resulting in a love child, Isabella Rossellini.[2]
