I had never made “Garbage Bread” until recently. The concept is simple…throw whatever you like into a pizza crust and roll it up, cinnamon roll-style. Garbage bread is essentially stuffed pizza dough. It falls into the stromboli, calzone, or panzarotti category because it uses pizza dough and similar toppings to pizza (which can be anything, right?), but the toppings become fillings when the dough is wrapped around them. Panzerotti are a popular Italian street food; a deep-fried pocket of dough filled with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. A calzone is single serving of a folded pizza-like dish from Naples, Italy, made from pizza dough filled with ingredients like cheese, meats, and vegetables, and then baked with a side of marinara on the side. a stromboli is a log-shaped item made by rolling up pizza dough with fillings like mozzarella and made with sauce baked inside.
Garbage Bread is a simple and inexpensive meal that feeds around 4 people and will fill you up without breaking the bank. Not to mention, this is one of those delightful experiments in cooking where anything goes. Just raid your cupboards and fridge to make up whatever topping combination strikes your fancy.
Garbage bread can literally be made in so many different ways. One of this week’s recipes is a cheeseburger version; it essentially tastes like a White Castle Cheeseburger. (And if you’ve never tried a White Castle I feel both sorry for you and jealous of you all at the same time.) The other recipe is for a breakfast garbage bread that is good for feeding a crowd.
Here are some tasty combinations you can try:
*BBQ Chicken Garbage Bread: Spread barbecue sauce over the dough and top with shredded cooked chicken, red onions, and mozzarella cheese. Bake as directed.
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Pizza Garbage Bread: Spread pizza sauce over the dough and top with fresh mozzarella cheese, cherry tomatoes, and basil. Bake as directed.
*You can substitute the ground beef with ground turkey or a plant-based alternative for a lighter touch. Any cooked and crumbled sausage also works wonders.
*Feel free to add other veggies you have on hand, like mushrooms, or perhaps a handful of spinach for a touch of green.
*For those picky eaters, keep it simple with just cheese and beef, or even just cheese; it’ll be our little secret.
You can prepare the Garbage Bread ahead of time and refrigerate it before baking. Just let it come to room temperature for about 30 minutes prior to popping it in the oven. Adapt, enjoy, and most of all, gather round because this meal is made for sharing and caring.
Bacon Cheeseburger Garbage Bread
Ingredients
1/2 pound chopped bacon
1 cup chopped onion
1-pound lean ground beef
1 tablespoon steak seasoning
2 ounces Velveeta, cubed
1 (13.8 ounce) thin crust pizza dough
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar jack cheese
Sauce
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons ketchup
salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
Preheat oven to 425°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. In a large skillet over medium-low heat cook bacon until it’s crisp. Remove the bacon from the pan and set aside. Drain most of the grease. In the same skillet, heat to medium high. Add the onions and ground beef into the skillet and cook until the onions are soft and the meat is cooked through. Drain anymore excess liquid/grease from the pan. Place the skillet back on the heat and turn the heat to low. Add bacon back into the pan and season with the steak seasoning. Add in the Velveeta and stirring continuously cook until the cheese is melted. Remove the pan from the heat. Roll the pizza dough out onto the prepared baking sheet. The dough should be approximately a 15×10 rectangle. We’re not looking for perfection; rustic is good for the soul. Spread the meat mixture evenly on top, leaving an inch at the edges to allow for spreading. Sprinkle the grated cheese on top of the meat. Roll up the pizza dough, starting with the long sides and pinch the crust together to seal. Bake seam side down for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow the bread to cool for 5-10 minutes before slicing. Sauce: In a small bowl whisk together the mayonnaise, ketchup, salt, and pepper. Dip the sliced bread into the sauce, if desired.
Breakfast Garbage Bread
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups frozen potato tots
One 12-ounce package pork breakfast sausage
10 strips bacon (8 ounces)
5 large eggs
2 cups grated American cheese (6 ounces)
2 cups grated white Cheddar (6 ounces)
All-purpose flour, for dusting
1 1/2 pounds store bought pizza dough (see Cook’s Note)
Ketchup and/or hot sauce, for serving
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment and spread the potato tots on the sheet. Bake until golden brown and crisp, about 25 minutes. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack and let cool. Lower the oven to 400 degrees F. Meanwhile, heat the sausage in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat and cook, stirring to break up the sausage, until browned and no longer pink, about 8 minutes. Transfer the sausage to paper towels with a slotted spoon to drain; discard any remaining fat. Let the sausage cool, then crumble into 1/2-inch pieces. Heat the bacon in the skillet over medium heat and cook, flipping once, until browned, about 8 minutes. Using tongs, transfer the bacon to paper towels to drain; discard any remaining fat. Let the bacon cool, then crumble into 1/2-inch pieces. Prepare a bowl of ice water and set aside. Cover 4 eggs by 1 inch with water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover the pan, remove from the heat and let the eggs stand for 6 minutes. Uncover and drain the eggs, then transfer to the bowl of ice water and let stand for 3 minutes. Drain and peel the eggs, then quarter each egg lengthwise. Toss the American cheese and Cheddar together in a small bowl until evenly combined. Roll the dough into a 20-by-14-inch rectangle on a lightly floured work surface. Starting from the shorter end, spread the cheese mixture evenly over half of the dough, leaving a 1-inch border on the sides. Scatter the sausage, bacon and potato tots evenly over the cheese. Arrange all the egg quarters, yolk up, along the short side of the rectangle. Working from this short side, tightly roll the dough up, jelly roll-style, into a log. Pinch the open seams together to seal, then tuck them underneath the log. Beat the remaining egg. Transfer the log to the prepared baking sheet and brush with the egg wash. Bake until the bread is golden brown all over, about 40 minutes. Let the bread cool for 10 minutes. Halve the bread lengthwise, cut each half crosswise into 4 equal pieces and serve warm with ketchup or hot sauce. Cook’s Note: To make rolling and shaping the dough easy, keep the dough refrigerated until 10 to 15 minutes before you are ready to use it.