Stromboli (food) - Stromboli

Stromboli is a type of turnover filled with various cheeses (typically mozzarella) and Italian meats (such as salami, capicola and bresaola) or vegetables. The dough used is either Italian bread dough or pizza dough.

Stromboli was invented in the United States in the 1950s. It was named after the Italian film Stromboli.

A stromboli is somewhat similar to a calzone. A calzone is a baked turnover stuffed with pizza ingredients. A stromboli is usually made by rolling up dough that has been topped with pizza ingredients and then baking it. A calzone is crescent-shaped, and a stromboli is usually shaped like a long rectangle. A calzone is served with tomato sauce on top of it or on the side, while a stromboli generally has the tomato sauce inside it. The question is complicated by the fact that there is some variation in what constitutes a stromboli.

Preparation

Many American pizza shops serve a stromboli using pizza dough that is folded in half with fillings, similar to a half-moon-shaped calzone. At other establishments, a stromboli is 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, similar to panzerotti.

Origins

There are several claims regarding the origin of the usage 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. The pizzeria owner had experimented with "pizza imbottito", or "stuffed pizza", and added ham, cotechino salami, cheese and peppers into a pocket of bread dough. 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.

In 1954, Mike Aquino of Mike's Burger Royal in Spokane, Washington says he also named the sandwich after the same movie. Aquino's version included capicola ham and provolone cheese covered in an Italian chili sauce on a French bread roll.