I have a shameful, shameful secret.

Something I do not admit to many people.  But I’m sharing it today, because I think I’ve been healed and can move on with my life.

Here goes: I love (not just like), frozen pizza rolls.  You know, those nasty preservative-filled, fake meat, bazillion calorie rolls you find in the freezer section.  I think I may have lived off them for a bit in college.  Nowadays, I will sneak them when Hubs is away (such as when he and my four-year old were camping) because he makes complete fun of me when he sees them.

Well, we’ve been on a bit of an all-natural food kick around here.  (We’re trying not to eat anything boxed – and if we do, we make sure we know what all the ingredients are before buying it.)  Anyways, I made the decision mistake of looking at the back of one of those boxes.  Oh, boy – that was a long list of ingredients.  Half of which I couldn’t even pronounce.  Yikes.

So I enjoyed my very last box of pizza rolls, sadly vowing never to touch them again.

And then, just when I’d figured I was done forever with pizza rolls, I saw this at one of my favorite blogs, Crustabakes.  And I knew I had to make them.

The Recipe:

Margherita Pizza Rolls, inspired from Annie Eats - but a good portion of the recipe is mine

Pizza Dough: (there are weird measurements because I halved the recipe)

7/8 c warm water (about 110 degrees)

1 1/8 t of yeast

1 t sugar

1 T oil

2 c bread flour (yes, Hubs buys this in bulk)

3/4 t salt

Place warm water, yeast, and sugar in small bowl.  Mix and allow to get bubbly – about five minutes.  Add oil and stir.

In mixer, place flour and salt and give it a quick mix.  Add liquid ingredients and mix for about five minutes – using dough hook to knead.  Roll out onto floured surface (dough may be a tad sticky).  Knead in flour until you can form a ball.  Place in oiled bowl and let rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Punch dough down and divide into 16-20 equalish pieces.

Pizza Rolls:

about 2 c crushed tomatoes

1/4 c chopped fresh basil

about 4 oz mozzarella, cubed into about 1/2 inch pieces

olive oil

dried basil

fresh grated parmesan or cheese of choice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Flatten small piece of dough.  Place some tomatoes, mozzarella cube, and fresh basil on top.  Pull up sides to contain filling and pinch together at top.  Place in greased pie pan, seam side down.  Repeat with all dough pieces.  Brush tops with olive oil.  Sprinkle on dried basil and parmesan cheese.  Cook in oven for about 20 minutes or until tops are golden brown.

{Printable Recipe}

The Results:

I am never going back to that boxed crap again.  These were de-li-cious.  And really, not that hard to do.  I think I also enjoyed that this was kinda half-baking, too, not just dinner.

One of my inspirations for this dish came from the overabundance of tomatoes we have in our garden right now.

Crushing them was a little harder that I had thought, so our bite had pretty good-size tomato chunks in them.  But, really, I’m not complaining.

Placing the filling on the dough and pinching was a little tricky, too.

But after about five, I had it down pat.  And they looked so pretty in the pie dish (not necessarily uniform in size, I admit, but pretty all the same).

And if I thought they were pretty before…

Check out the after!  I almost didn’t want to eat them, they were so lovely looking.  But, somehow, I forced myself to try one.

After that, I didn’t look back.  And between me and the fam, we demolished those rolls.

So the boxed rolls are officially banned.  And if I need a little pizza snack, I know what to do.

I feel healthier (and less shameful) already.

Tagged: bread, italian food, oven, recipe