Let the dough rise.
Drizzle dough with flour and roll it flat until it looks like making a pizza.
Place a thin coat of olive oil around the edges and in the center.
Layer the dough with pepperoni, overlapping each other, and covering the entire dough.
Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese on top, followed by a zigzag effect of sauce. Do not cover the entire surface with sauce, just the zigzag effect down the center.
Pre-heat the oven to 350°.
Add the pieces of sausage, onion, and pepper.
Fold the sides in, and start to wrap, each time pulling the sides out and tucking them in. Then continue rolling.
Put onto a greased 14-inch pan.
Cook at 350° for 30 minutes.
Cool for 5 minutes, remove from pan.
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When I was younger, my dad never really had time to make dinner for his family as much as he wanted to. He loved cooking, but he always had a late night meeting, or he was flying off to some other state. He usually got his chance to finally cook around holidays or special events. Everyone always made potato salad, taco dip, or brownies, so he wanted to separate himself from others. His family is very Italian, and loves Italian food, so obviously his creation was going to be either pasta or pizza-related.
One summer morning, I woke up and walked downstairs. Dean Martin's voice was blasting throughout my house, and I smelled something magnificent. It smelled like pizza, but there was no pizza in sight. The kitchen was a mess, so I knew that my dad had been cooking. He's one of those dads who loves to cook, but hates the aftermath of it all, which is the cleaning.
He was rolling dough out on the table, covered with flour. Next, he sprawled out the sauce, covering every inch of the dough. Then he grabbed the cheese, pepperoni, and sausage, and threw them in different spots. Once it looked like a pizza, he carefully tucked in the corners, and very slowly, rolled it up. I asked, "Dad, rolling a pizza? Aren't they supposed to be flat?" He just giggled, and told me to wait until he was done.
My mouth, after trying this amazing pizza roll, was filled with delight. It tasted like pizza, but there was no dripping sauce. It was a clean cut, every slice. He was making this wonderful pizza roll for a neighborhood block party that we were hosting that night. I asked if he was going to make any other types, or could he make any other types. His response was, "I don't know, Kate. I never tried any other recipes. We'll see, maybe next time we make them, I'll try something new."
From then on, his specialty was the pizza roll. However, he makes chicken Caesar salad rolls, broccoli and cheddar rolls, and hamburger rolls. The chicken Caesar salad rolls had ingredients like lettuce, chicken, Caesar dressing, and cheese. Broccoli and cheddar rolls contained melted cheese, about a pound of broccoli, and some spices. The hamburger roll, made in my honor, had bits of ground meat, ketchup, lettuce, tomato, and onions. He made this creation whenever I was going through my, "I only eat hamburgers," phase.
Every time he had to make them, he would always ask my younger sister, Megan, and me to help. We would listen to Dean Martin for hours on end. My sister and I would take and hide little pieces of dough without my dad knowing. We would all sit there and eat little pieces of the recipe, and talk about school. It was always a good time cooking together, and I still cherish those moments to this day. My dad and I are so extremely close. I believe it is because of little things like cooking together that just brought us closer together.
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