February 5, 2012

Pizza Roll-Ups

I don't know about any of you but I love pizza pockets but I hate how heavy and greasy I feel after.  I found this recipe on Pinterest and decided to spend a night and modify it into some kind of pizza roll-up with tasty fresh ingredients.  Apparently though, Astoria grocery stores do not believe in egg roll wrappers so I had to go with plan B: phyllo dough.  Not a big deal, nothing is better then improvising in the kitchen, some of my favorite meals have come from cooking this way.  Not only was I feeling adventurous, but it was the Civil War basketball game and I knew I wanted some kind of finger food to enjoy while watching the game.

I'm not going to say I went to the store to get ingredients just for this meal, but I kinda did.  I knew that I would be able to make other tasty dinners with everything I was buying so I wasn't worried about it.  When you cook for one most nights, you start to think ahead with every food purchase.  I already have most of what I need at home, but I pick up some phyllo dough, mozzarella and prosciuto after work.  As soon as I get home I gather everything on the counter and start planning out what I want to do.


Once the phyllo is soft enough to work with I get started.  I don't have a pastry brush so I use olive oil spray to coat the sheets of phyllo before rolling them.  I use two sheets of phyllo cut in half to start with.  I top each with a thin slice of mozzarella, a couple pieces of shredded prosciuto, a slice of tomato, some garlic, parmesan and spices.


Roll it up like a tiny burrito and top with a little more parmesan cheese and some Italian spices.  I repeat 5 more times and I'm ready to bake.  Into a 375 degree oven and I sit back and wait.  I will freely admit that I am terrible at judging how many layers of phyllo to use.  I check on my roll-ups after about 7 minutes and realize that I did not use enough sheets.  The cheese has oozed out the sides and is all over my baking sheet.  Luckily my roll-ups move easily so I shift them out of the way of the cheese to finish baking.


I let them bake for a total of about 12-15 minutes until the outside is nice and golden and crisp.  There are no ingredients to actually cook except to melt the cheese and brown the phyllo.  It smells good in my kitchen now and I realize I am actually really hungry.  So I quickly throw together a green salad and serve myself up.  A side of marinara completes my dish and I'm ready to watch the Civil War basketball game and relax.


My pizza rolls are delicious.  Warm and gooey and crispy and light.  I eat 4 but don't feel like a grease ball after.  They were so good!  I will need to find somewhere that has egg roll wrappers because I think it would take them up a notch and really make them perfect.  Next time, if I can't find the wrappers, I will use 3 or 4 sheets of phyllo to keep the cheese inside, but I have to admit, I like pulling the crispy melty cheese off my baking dish.

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