Something To Do With Leftover Pizza Dough: Bacon Tunnels

pizza dough
cooked, crumbled bacon
cheese
onion

Preheat oven to 475. Slice the onion either in thin half moons or a small dice. Roll out the dough fairly thin, into about a 20" long, 7-8" wide oblong. Put bacon, cheese and onion all along the long side closest to you. Roll the dough away from you, into a cylinder. Pinch the seam closed. Top with some shredded cheese and bake for 10-15 minutes, till golden brown.

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I know, the name sounds kind of dirty. But I really couldn't resist. Heh. Anyway, the whole thing with these is I had about a half a batch of pizza dough leftover from the meatloaf braid and needed something to do with it. I wanted to do something a little different, maybe breakfasty. I had really wanted to find some way to work egg into it, but the only thing I could think to do at the time was hard boiled, and that wasn't quite what I was looking for. Next time I think what I'm going to do is cook the bread just like this and then afterward fill it up with scrambled eggs or chopped up fried egg. Hm, I suppose you could just roll the fried egg up and stuff it in like that... More experiments are clearly needed. But, back to the tunnels. They're basically just a big, stuffed breadstick. When I baked them they got a large, hollow center. I think it's because the cheese I used was big cubes so it held up the dough while the outside baked. That's just a guess though. No matter why it happens though, it's really just screaming for some kind of filling. You could put some vegetables in there... I guess. Broccoli would be good. Potato, zucchini, peppers, spinach, whatever you like. So, here is what you do.

First, roll out the dough into a big oblong. How big? However big you like. I made it about twenty inches by seven or so. I think. Then I just put on the bacon, some thin sliced red onion and cubes of mozzarella. Cheddar would be good too or Gruyere. Hell, any cheese would be good, it's bacon, bread and cheese for crying out loud. Next I rolled it up. I didn't make to too tight, but I didn't try to keep it loose either. I sealed the seam with a little water (didn't work out that well, unfortunately) then topped it with some olive oil and a little more cheese. Baked it on a baking stone at 475 for about thirteen minutes, or so. I love the little browned bits of cheese on the outside, it gives a great taste and texture. Sometimes I do it on pizza too, around the edge of the crust. So the verdict is, they are wicked good. But next time I'm going to put more stuff in there.