Posted by Rachel Schwartz on 1/31/2020 to
Family
Ingredients:
- 1 cup marinara sauce
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 5 mozzarella sticks
- 1 tube pizza crust dough
- 24 pieces of pepperoni
- Parmesan cheese for garnish
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Unroll the pizza dough onto a large, flat surface and use a rolling pin to roll out the dough. The dough should be thinner, but not thin enough to break. Use a pizza cutter to cut 3 horizontal lines and 5 vertical lines in the dough to make 24 pieces.
- Unwrap four of the mozzarella sticks and cut each stick into six pieces. Place one piece of cheese stick in the center of each piece of pizza dough. Fold opposite corners of the dough towards the center and pinch to seal it closed. Make sure the seam is fully closed to prevent melted cheese from escaping later.
- Place each ball seam-side down on the baking sheet in a specific order to loosely resemble a football. There will be 5 rows of balls with 6 balls in the center row, 5 balls on each of the adjacent rows, and 4 balls on each of the outermost rows.
- Place in the oven the bake for 15 minutes. While the dough is baking, melt the butter and add in the minced garlic to create a melted garlic butter.
- Once the dough is lightly browned, remove from the oven and brush with the melted garlic butter. Then place a piece of pepperoni on top of each individual dough ball.
- Take the last mozzarella stick and cut it so hat there is one long piece and three shorter pieces. Place them on top of the bread in the center to mimic the laces of a football and sprinkle the whole thing with Parmesan cheese.
- Broil the bread for around one minute to melt the cheese laces, taking care not to burn it.
- Remove from the oven, place on a serving platter with a bowl of the marinara sauce for dipping and serve.
