Super Bowl Standout: Pizza Roll Dippers

Are you recovered from the beer and/or cheese induced comas of Super Bowl??? Super Bowl is one of my favorite food holidays because it's alllllllllllllll about the appetizers. Oh, and I guess football or whatever too. I actually like watching football, but I'm not a big enough fan of any team to climb light poles or eat horse poop if my team wins... talk about commitment. So I'll just stick to the appetizers...

Nothing flew off the table quicker than these pizza roll dippers. I put it out, went to go turn off the oven (10 steps away!) and by the time I turned back around they were gone! I was barely able to snap this picture! The only thing I'd do differently next time is make two of these...

Pizza Roll Dippers:

Ingredients:

• 1 loaf frozen bread (see below picture!)

• 1 cup creamy tomato marinara sauce (recipe below) + extra for dipping

• 1 pound hot ground sausage

• 1/2 onion, diced

• 1 cup Mozzarella cheese

• Pepperoni

• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese

• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

• 1 teaspoon garlic salt

Directions:

1. Take out bread to defrost and rise. (This takes about 10-12 hours; so I usually leave it out on the counter overnight in a bread pan covered by a clean towel.)

2. Make the creamy tomato marinara sauce (see below).

3. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. In separate skillet, begin to brown hot ground sausage. Add diced onions to pan and cook until sausage is browned.

4. On a floured area, roll out risen bread dough to a long rectangle.

5. Spread marinara sauce onto dough, leaving a 1/4 inch around all the sides. Top with cheese, pepperoni, and ground sausage mixture.

6. Fold up long sides of rectangle and pinch the seams to seal. Bring both ends together to form a circle. Place the seem side down on a baking sheet.

7. Brush melted butter over the crust. Sprinkle parmesan and garlic salt on top.

8. Bake for 13-15 minutes, until it is dark golden brown.

Creamy Tomato Marinara Sauce:

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 1 onion, diced

• 1 carrot, shredded

• 3 cloves garlic, minced

• 2 cans diced tomatoes

• 1 tablespoon dried oregano

• 1 tablespoon dried parsley

• 1 teaspoon dried thyme

• 1 can tomato sauce

• 2 teaspoons sugar

• Salt and pepper, to taste

• 1 cup heavy cream

• 1 cup parmesan cheese, shredded

Directions:

1. In a medium skillet, heat olive oil. Add diced onions and carrots, cook for 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for another minute.

2. Add diced tomatoes, oregano, parsley, thyme, and cook for a few more minutes. Pour in tomato sauce.

3. Add sugar, salt, and pepper to taste and simmer the sauce for an hour.

4. Add in heavy cream and parmesan cheese and simmer for another hour.

By the way, here's the frozen bread I always keep in my freezer... you can use this for pizza, cinnamon rolls, calzones (which is why my mom always had this in her freezer!)...

#appetizers #superbowl #pizza #italian