The recipe
Ingredients
- 500 g proofed pizza dough
- 100 g firm mozzarella, well drained and finely diced
- 80 g cooked ham, finely cut
- 60 g thick pizza sauce, cooled
- 2 tsp olive oil
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- A little flour for shaping
Method
- Divide dough into ten portions. Rest covered for 10 minutes if needed. Cut cheese and ham into small pieces and stir oregano into the thick sauce.
- Press portions into discs approximately 9 to 10 cm across. Place 6 g sauce, 10 g cheese and 8 g ham in the middle of each, leaving about 2 cm clear around the edge.
- Bring the edges up over the filling and pinch completely closed. Place seam-side down with gaps on a tray lined with baking paper suitable for 220°C.
- Rest covered for around 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 220°C with conventional top and bottom heat.
- Brush thinly with the oil. Bake on the middle shelf for approximately 18 to 22 minutes until golden, checking from minute 16. Open one roll to check that the inner dough layer is cooked.
- Cool for five minutes and serve warm.
Prepare a small filling for each roll
Divide 500 g already-proofed pizza dough into ten portions of approximately 50 g. Rest them covered for ten minutes if they spring back strongly when flattened. For the complete filling, use 100 g firm, well-drained mozzarella, 80 g cooked ham and 60 g thick pizza sauce. Cut the cheese and ham into small pieces and divide everything, mentally or on a plate, into ten amounts. Each roll receives approximately 10 g cheese, 8 g ham and 6 g sauce.
Thin passata is less suitable because it runs onto the edges during folding. Use sauce that has already been reduced and cooled. The ham is ready-to-eat cooked ham; raw meat filling is not part of this method. For a meat-free version, omit the ham and keep the cheese quantity unchanged. Extra filling is not automatically an improvement: an overfilled ball is difficult to close and may split during baking.
Keep the edges clean and close the seam
Press each dough portion into a disc approximately nine to ten centimetres across. The centre can remain slightly thicker. Place the filling in the middle, leaving around two centimetres clear at the edge. Bring the edges together over the filling, press the dough surfaces firmly together and place the roll seam-side down on a prepared tray. Sauce or flour on the seam prevents it sticking properly. Carefully remove any residue before closing.
Leave several centimetres between rolls and rest them covered for around 20 minutes until they look a little more relaxed and aerated. Before baking, brush thinly with two teaspoons of olive oil in total. The longer baking time compared with a thin pizza accounts for the enclosed shape. Open one roll to check that the inner dough layer is cooked through. Cool the finished rolls for five minutes before biting into them; melted cheese inside is considerably hotter than the surface may suggest.