Ham and Cheese Roll

As I've mentioned many times, poverty was the best cooking teacher I ever had. When I realized that 5 lbs of flour at $3.99 a bag could make quiches, pizza, and scacciatas, in addition to bread and rolls, I knew that these were things I needed to make a constant in my cooking life. The only thing I had in abundance in grad school (besides school work) was time on my hands, so I quickly became adept at making quiche/pie crust and pizza dough.  Wrap pie or pizza dough around cheese, and some other ingredients and you have a full meal.

As a vegetarian I would usually wrap cheese and dough around cooked broccoli or spinach. In this case, I served these ham rolls the same night I made the Spinach Scacciatas so I added the ham in for variety. The more traditional Italian version would be with sweet or spicy Italian sausage, but ham is a great replacement and cheaper if you're keeping track of your pennies.
Ham and Cheese Roll

dough for calzones or pizza (like this)
3 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
1 package sandwich ham slices, cut in 1/2 cubes
1 tablespoon olive oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Heat oil in skillet or pan over medium high heat. Add ham and toss to cook 3-4 minutes, until pieces just begin to brown and crisp. Remove from pan and drain. Divide pizza dough into two pieces and stretch first piece into a rectangle on a cutting board. Evenly distribute half of mozzarella over all, leaving 1/2 inch border all around. Sprinkle half of cooked ham over all and top with half of parmesan cheese. Salt and pepper to taste. Beginning with edge closest to you, roll jelly-roll style, tucking the ends in as you go or pinching them together and rolling them in. When finished rolling, pinch seam to seal and place seam side down to rest. Repeat with remaining dough and ingredients. Place rolls on foil lined baking sheet and lightly oil top of roll with olive oil. Poke 5-6 steam holes in top of roll and bake for 30 minutes until roll is lightly browned. Remove from oven and allow to rest for at least 5 minutes. Cut into slices and serve.

Hugs!