Stuffed to the brim with incredibly flavorful roasted vegetables and 3 different cheeses, this Roasted Vegetable Stromboli is an incredible version of cheesy bread comfort food.

Outside, the air is a little crisp for the trailing end of a SouthWest winter, and it is difficult to determine whether or not you want to bundle up in a classic oversized sweater, or try your hand at leg warmers with a tank top. It is a decidedly conflicting dilemma that occurs quite often in a region that does not have defined season changes. Though my family and friends from home may laugh at my ever-thinning blood and lack of a true winter, I am sure they would not fault me for longing for a bit of comfort food during these times.

Most people may think of beef stew or mashed potatoes as comfort food, because you can obtain a myriad of rich, heavy flavors that are soft and hearty. Seeing as I do not eat red meat nor pork except very occasionally bacon, beef stew is out the window for me. I tend to think of comfort food as something that evokes nostalgia, while bringing a variety of textures and flavors to the forefront. I think of vegetables.

Now, you may have just thrown a dirty look at your screen, or mentally proclaimed my line of thinking a bit absurd, but let me explain. I’m not talking about some steamer bag of flash frozen vegetables you use in a pinch to round out a 10 minute meal before running out the door. I am not talking about some sad, boiled to death vegetables that you yourself may have had a standoff with your parents so many years ago. I am talking about some seriously mouthwatering, roasted vegetables, who are scented with balsamic vinegar, a bit of lemon juice, garlic, rosemary and thyme. These roasted little beauties are crisp, yet tender, and when encapsulated inside a homemade pizza dough with meltingly soft mozzarella cheese and the sharp punch of Feta popping up out of nowhere, you will not want to eat your vegetables in any other way.

This Roasted Vegetable Medley is one of my staples, I use them in almost everything. But the sneakiest way to get nutrition into a cheesy stuffed bread is to add these little gems into it for a grown up version of comfort food.

In my Undergraduate days, my girls, she-wolf pack, tribe, however you would like to label the bond of found family ties, and I practically lived off a soft, pillowy, melty, cheesy bread from national pizza chain store. This bread saw us through countless nights of laughter, hysterical bouts of tears, and soaked up oceans of Schmirnoff Ice, Keystone Light, and other really terrible, cheap alcohol. One of the local bars hosted a Ladies Night (when we were of age, of course) where the women were able to order pretty much endless amounts of free cheesy bread. For broke college students, can you imagine exactly how much of this cheesy bread was consumed?

Garlicky, buttery, cheesy, tangy, and sweetly nutty, this Roasted Vegetable Stromboli is a different experience with each bite you take.

Being a little older, a little wiser, and striving to incorporate a bit of nutrition into this nostalgic cheesy bread, I have found that these roasted vegetables are the perfect way to “adult” that old college favorite. To give it a proper, sophisticated name, my adult version is technically categorized as a Roasted Vegetable Stromboli. Unlike your typical Stromboli that the bread ends up being pretty thin ad takes 20 minutes to bake, this Roasted Vegetable Stromboli pizza dough produces a beautiful puffy, pillowy crust with a more developed depth of flavor because it is an overnight dough. I used Smitten Kitchen’s version of the Lazy Pizza Dough, which she modified her recipe off of Jim Lahey’s No Knead Pizza Dough. That man is a complete genius when it comes to breads. Since I used the entire batch of dough and it is stuffed to almost overflowing with the cheeses and vegetables, it takes a minimum of 45 minutes to bake if you like a softer, doughy texture, and up to 55 if you are like me and like the bottom of the Stromboli to develop the texture of the bottom of a good wood fired pizza crust.

I chose a longer bake time at a lower heat because it was crucial to ensure that the dough properly bakes through. When a bread is stuffed so full of vegetables and cheeses, it is easy to bake just the outside of the bread and have raw dough inside. The vegetables can be made ahead and the whole Stromboli baked with cold vegetables or hot, the bake time for the bread will be the same. Since the roasted vegetables makes enough for two full Strombolis, you can make them ahead to use as you see fit - I use them in salads, wraps, sandwiches, a plain side, in pastas - pretty much any application you can think of.

Fold the ends over the vegetables to fence them in, then braid the strips of dough to create a fancy looking little cheesy masterpiece.

This Roasted Vegetable Stromboli is amazing in that it is a tribute to my college family, gives you some nutrition with the vegetables, comfort with the cheesy, bready goodness, and is sophisticated enough to serve with a great wine yet homey enough to serve at a football party. It is one of those all encompassing foods that fits almost every occasion. Pair it with a side of wings ro a little mixed green salad and you're good to go!

This Roasted Vegetable Stromboli can feed a crowd - this is just a little over half of the full Stromboli shown. Perfect comfort food and a good way to get some extra vegetables in!

Roasted Vegetable Stromboli

Author: Iris Anna Gohn

Servings: 4 dinner servings or a plentiful party appetizer

This Roasted Vegetable Stromboli is a pretty forgiving recipe in that you can make the vegetables ahead and use them for this recipe and a myriad of other uses as well. Truly, they are my most often made vegetables as they are incredibly flavorful and just get better with time. I love mixing them with Chickpeas and Feta and topping a bed of mixed greens for a tasty, quick lunch that’s easy to meal prep.

The dough is incredibly hard to mess up as there is NO kneading. I have made this a few times, all with slight variations, and it is a winner for lightness of dough and flavor. I’ve even used cold water and the yeast does fine overnight - it may take a little extra time to rise up to the same puff that room temp water does, but it won’t ruin the dough. This dough is INCREDIBLY wet and sticky, so I scrape it out of the bowl with a spatula onto a well floured surface. I then cover the dough well with flour until it doesn’t feel sticky, and proceed to roll it out.

Unlike the cheesy bread of my youth, the roasted vegetables are flavorful and juicy enough that you do not need a dipping sauce to accompany it. This is also because you brush the Stromboli with a Garlic Butter Sauce before baking, but if you want something to dip it in, a SunDried Tomato Asiago Cream Sauce type deal would be a nice accompaniment.

Do not be intimidated by the recipe ingredients list. I have broken down each portion into an easy to follow format. It looks like a lot, but I find it easier to work on each element separately and I have found it to be easier to have separate sections for each part rather than look through the recipe frantically during a crucial moment in the process.

Ingredients

For the Pizza Dough (Smitten Kitchen Recipe here)

3 Cups All Purpose Flour + extra for rolling out
1/8 Tsp Active Dry Yeast, slightly heaped
1 1/2 Tsp Sea Salt
1 1/4 Cup Water

For the Roasted Vegetables:

1 Large Onion, chopped
1 Red Bell Pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped
1 Large or 2 Small Zucchini, sliced
1 Large or 2 Small Summer Squash, sliced
1/2 Pint (4 oz) Cherry Tomatoes
1 Pint (8 oz) Crimini Mushrooms, sliced in half or thirds if extra big
2 Broccoli Heads, stems removed and cut into florets
4 Sprigs Fresh Rosemary
4 Sprigs Fresh Thyme
2 Tbsp Minced Garlic
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice (reserve used Lemon Rinds)
5 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 1/2 Tsp KOSHER Salt
1/4 to 1/2 Tsp Fresh Cracked Black Pepper

For the Garlic Butter Sauce:

3 Tbsp Salted Butter
1 1/2 Tsp Minced Garlic
1/3 Cup Chopped Parsley

For the Stromboli Assembly:

1 Eight oz Package Shredded Mozzarella
3/4 Cup Feta Cheese Crumbles, divided
1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese Shavings
Cornmeal, for sprinkling

Directions

For the Pizza Dough:

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, yeast, and salt.
With a wooden spoon, stir in the water until a wet dough forms. Depending on the climate/humidity, you may need to add a touch more water to have all the flour be absorbed, but I did not find this necessary.
Cover the dough ball with Saran Wrap, making sure the wrap completely covers the dough. You do not want air to hit the dough and create a crusty shell as it will hinder the rising process. Let sit in a warm environment for 18-22 hours before ready to use. Dough will have fluffed up over double the original size and smell incredibly yeasty.

For the Roasted Vegetables:

Preheat Oven to 350 F.
In a 9x13 roasting pan, layer the vegetables as follows: onions, peppers, zucchini, summer squash, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, broccoli. I layer them this way so the onions and peppers can kind of caramelize/steam and the broccoli can slightly crisp on the edges.
Evenly sprinkle the minced garlic over all the vegetables, then drizzle the olive oil, lemon juice, and balsamic vinegar over the vegetables as well.
Nestle the rosemary and thyme sprigs evenly into the vegetables. Nestle the used lemon rinds in as well - I ended up with one used for the juice and an additional lemon I quartered lengthwise and added for extra lemon essence without adding too much juice.
Sprinkle the salt and pepper evenly over all the vegetables.
Roast for 45 minutes. Vegetables will be fork tender but still hold some crunch and integrity and not be mushy. Dispose of the lemon wedges, rosemary and thyme sprigs then mix the vegetables thoroughly. Store extras in airtight container.

For the Garlic Butter Sauce:

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over low heat.
Add in the garlic and chopped parsley and stir, cooking for 1 to 2 minutes so the sharp fresh garlic flavor is cooked out.

To Assemble the Stromboli:

Preheat Oven to 350 F. Line a large baking sheet with Parchment Paper. Sprinkle Cornmeal evenly over Parchment Paper.
Generously flour your work surface where you will be rolling out the pizza dough. With a Spatula, gently coax the very wet pizza dough onto the flour. Generously dust the dough with more flour until it has no sticky spots.
With a floured rolling pin, gently roll the pizza dough out into a large rectangle, mine was roughly 22”x12”
Down the center of the rolled out pizza dough, sprinkle about half of the mozzarella cheese in a neat rectangle, leaving 2 inches of dough on the top and bottom and about 4-5 inches of dough on the sides.
Sprinkle the parmesan on top of the mozzarella, then layer half of the roasted veggies on top of the cheese. Make sure you use a slotted spoon so no extra juices are inside the Stromboli, you do NOT want to have too much liquid inside creating a soggy bottom to the finished product.
Layer about 1/2 of the remaining mozzarella on top of the vegetables, then 1/2 a cup of the feta cheese on top of that.
With a Pizza Slicer, carefully cut slits on the left and right side of the vegetables so you can prepare to braid them. I ended up with about 10 2 inch wide strips, and the top and bottom ones were a little wider.
Fold down the top strip of dough over the veggies, boxing them in neatly. Carefully braid the remaining dough strips over the rest of the vegetables, and at the bottom again have the dough boxing in the vegetables. This way everything stays nice and contained while baking.
With two spatulas, carefully lift the braided Stromboli onto the prepared baking sheet.
Brush the Garlic Butter Sauce evenly over the entire Stromboli, then evenly sprinkle the remaining mozzarella and feta cheese on top.
Bake for 45 to 55 minutes. 45 minutes will yield a softer, doughier Stromboli, very reminiscent to the iconic cheesy bread. 55 minutes will yield a soft top but very crisp, textured bottom, very reminiscent to a NY slice of pizza.