Looking for a new weeknight menu item? Everything Meatball Stromboli is one the whole family will love, just pair with a nice leafy salad!
Everything Meatball Stromboli is meatballs, marinara sauce and cheese wrapped in pizza dough topped with everything bagel seasoning. An easy weeknight meal recipe!
If you’ve read my recipe about Everything Bagel Seasoning, you’ll know I am kind of obsessed. I love this stuff. The perfect combination of garlicky, oniony, salty goodness with a crunch.
It will come as no surprise that I try to find a lot of things to put it on! Everything Meatball Stromboli is inspired by my favorite sub sandwich from Wegman’s grocery store.
A meatball sub with mozzarella cheese on an everything hoagie roll. Mind blown, huh? The problem is there is often a poor bread-to-meatball ration and I end up destroying the thing with a fork and knife to the point where it is unrecognizable.
What is stromboli?
Either pizza dough or Italian bread dough stuffed with vegetables and usually cold cuts, but generally anything you can think of.
What is the difference between stromboli and calzone? Not much, but the way they are sealed. Strombolis are rolled (or in my case, braided) while calzones are folded.
They are both made with the same type of dough, stuffed with the same ingredients and basically a sealed, portable pizza, but they are not the same thing.
So I decided to make my own version in the form of a stromboli recipe where I could control the pizza crust to meatball ratio and make them perfect! There are a few tricks to getting the perfect stromboli, let me share them with you.
Tips for making stromboli:
Don’t use too many wet ingredients in your stromboli. This will prevent the dough from baking and leave you a soggy stromboli.
If you want sauce, use a tiny bit inside, but serve more on the side for dipping.
Cut slits or braid the top of your stromboli. Regardless of what stuffing you use, your stromboli will need to release steam and it needs vents to do so. Cutting slits in the top or using the braid technique, like I do here, gives it the ability to let steam release.
Use corn meal or raw grits on your baking sheet. I know this sounds weird, but even if I use a pizza stone, I put corn meal or raw grits on the bottom of the pan. It prevents sticking and also absorbs some of the moisture, giving you the best chance at a crispy stromboli crust.
The more cheese, the merrier, but make sure you are using a low-moisture cheese. Low moisture cheese will release less water, again, making your stromboli more crunchy.
Brands vary and moisture varies even if the package says “low moisture” so experiment with which one you think works best. This also goes for making pizzas!
You’ll love these other Italian Inspired recipes:
Spinach Stuffed Mushrooms
Homemade Spaghetti and Meatballs
Everything Meatball Stromboli
Ingredients
- 13.8 ounces pizza dough
- 5 ounces low moisture mozzarella cheese
- 10 medium meatballs , cooked
- 1/4 cup marinara sauce , more for dipping
- 1 egg , lightly beaten
- 1 tablespoon Everything Bagel Mix
- 1 tablespoon cornmeal or raw grits
- 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese , shredded
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Spread your pizza dough on a lightly floured surface and roll into a 13×9 inch rectangle.
- Down the center, spread out mozzarella cheese. Top with meatballs in pairs of two.
- Spoon marinara sauce over meatballs.
- Cut 1-inch cuts diagonally up the side of your dough. Fold up one end first, then braid the dough in so there is space allowing steam to vent.
- Using a pastry brush, brush top with beaten egg. Sprinkle everything bagel mix over the top, allowing it to stick.
- Transfer to a baking sheet with cornmeal or grits on the bottom (to prevent sticking).
- Bake for 15-17 minutes, or until top is lightly browned.
- Remove and allow to rest for 5 minutes before topping with shredded Parmesan cheese.
- Slice and serve. I like to serve mine with additional marinara sauce for dipping!
- If you’ve tried this recipe, come back and let us know how it was!
This came out great. I had left over meatballs (originally frozen) and sauce to use. I thought the braiding part might be hard but it was easy! The everything seasoning was a game changer, kind of bagel/pretzel vibe. Will definitely make again. I put on parchment which helped with some escaping but delicious cheese!
Woohoo! Thanks for much for coming back to let us know!
I made it! And it was delicious! My picky husband loved it as well. I will surely be making this again. I need more practice getting my dough to stick to itself.
Yay! Love to hear that. One trick for the dough is to spray or baste the part you are trying to stick with an egg wash or water. The flour prevents it from sticking to the work surface, but also to each other, so reintroduce a tiny bit of moisture and you should be all good.
I have not made this, but would like to. I have a couple of questions..Could I use Panko crumbs in place of cornmeal? I have frozen meatballs that I made a couple of weeks ago, but they are on the larger side, should I slice them in half? Do you think store bought dough would work?? Thanks!
Hi there, glad you’d love to try it. I would advise against using panko instead of cornmeal. The cornmeal is just to prevent sticking and make sure the bottom of the crust stays nice and crunchy, panko won’t achieve the same result and might even burn. You can surely use frozen meatballs, just defrost them first and cut them into a size that makes sense (some larger ones might even need quarters), the pizza dough we used in this recipe is store bought- the kind you get in a canister and roll out, so yes 🙂
I would much rather see no reviews than reviews by people you know,your friends.Look at everyone of the reviews.No one has tried it.They just comment about what it might taste like.To me it takes away from the purpose of real reviews.
I can’t help who leaves comments, and many of these are people who follow me and get a new recipe sent to them and I LOVE to engage with me readers. The ratings are probably from people who have actually tried, again, no control. But in all honesty, if you are worried about the integrity of comments with no purpose… it seems this comment is also not helpful. I hope you do try and it and come back to let us know how it was 🙂
Seriously going on my menu for this next week! I keep all the ingredients on hand anyway. I just never thought of putting them together in a stromboli!
This is seriously one of the most delicious looking ways to use meatballs! I love stromboli and this looks perfect!!
I just pinned this — it sounds so delicious. I did NOT know the difference between a calzone and stromboli. And thanks for the tips. I always have a problem with soggy crust.
Oh my gosh, this looks so comforting and delicious! My family would love it!, and it’s the perfect place for the Everything seasoning. 🙂
This sounds like my perfect meal! And I totally agree, the more cheese the merrier!
I saw this on Facebook earlier and absolutely loved this recipe! Such a great and tasty idea, I can’t wait to make it!