friday night hippie roll

when my husband and i were first married ohh a million years ago.. well ok 26 to be exact this month.. we were on a budget.. i was a full time student and had a full time job as a runner for a law firm.. he had only worked at his job for about a year.. (which he just celebrated his 27 year anniversary at yay pete) we had just bought our first house and well after all the expenses and what nots we had about 10 bucks at the end of each week for "entertainment".. which most weekends meant a 12 pack of beer and a bag of pistachios.. ohh how i remember those weekends.. very good weekends.. let me tell ya.. after about a year or so of marriage and a couple of raises each we could actually go out or order out on friday nights.. now we had probably 20 bucks to spend ha.. so there was a little place by our house called enzo's.. we loooooooooved this place.. and they had a sandwich called the hippie roll.. (italian sausage, green peppers, onions and very little cheese and no sauce) we both loved it.. we would order one and an order of garlic knots to go and be out the door still with 10 bucks of budgeted entertainment fund.. well we moved from that house 21 years ago and are on our 4th and last house.. and sadly we haven't been back to enzo's since we moved.. even though it's still there.. but according to their website menu there no hippie roll on the menu anymore :/..

now last friday.. we were totally "broke".. not really but i told everyone who asked we were.. if you have followed this blog for the last three weeks then you know i had been without air.. yes no air and it was still in the 90's outside.. i was not a happy camper.. well finally the air conditioning man determined i believe your air conditioner is dead.. umm ya think?? now what.. well you need a new one.. well that's ok we have home warranty insurance.. well yes you do but your cost is still $1,600.00.. ARE YOU BLEEPING KIDDING ME?? so anyway.. after a few terrifying moments the a/c was ordered.. and for dinner that night i told pete i am making dinner.. *sigh* we aren't going out, you see it was friday and we were kidless and we were going to our favorite place in boulder city, which we haven't been to in forever..  :*( silly stupid air conditioner.. **kicken the darn thing.. youchhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..** ok nevermind back to my dinner.. i had a package of pre made pizza dough in the freezer.. i had sweet italian sauage in the freezer.. hmm i'm liking this.. i had green peppers and onions from my bountiful basket.. i had a bag of mozzerella .. ta da..hippe roll takes me back to the days we really were broke.. in the words of the dude on a-team.. "i love it when a plan comes together.."

prep time: 15  minutes

cook time:  40 minutes
servings:     4

ingredients:

1 lb. pre-made pizza dough (i only had garlic herb flavored and not authentic to the original sandwich, i would have preferred plain dough)
1 package of sweet italian sausage, diced (hot or mild would be good here i just remember the original hippie roll had sweet)
1 onions, chopped, (again sliced would be ok but the original had chopped)
1 green pepper, ( ha again you could use what you wanted but the original only used green and darn it i was going authentic as i could)
salt
olive oil
very little mozzarella (now most sausage and pepper sandwiches have tons of cheese.. this one didn't and i think that might be what i liked most about it.. the simplicity of it)

over a medium high heat and using a medium saute pan use two swirls around the pan of olive oil.. add your peppers and onions.. toss in some salt.. cook until tender.. lower heat.. in another pan or the same (up to you) cook your diced up sausage until no longer pink.. take your pizza dough cut in half and over a floured cutting board roll out.. brush with olive oil, split the sausage, peppers and onions among the two rolled out pieces dough.. sprinkle with cheese and fold over like a burrito.. brush the top with a little olive oil.. place a lined baking sheet.. cook in a 375 degree(f) oven for about 7 minutes.. i over cooked mine and it was "crispy" and the original was not it was more like a stromboli. still doughy.. which i prefer..  when i do it again.. and ohh yes there will be a next time.. it was good even over cooked and with dough i didn't care for it was good.. next time we go totally authentic.. might even get a cheesy 80's movie like 16 candles and watch that while eating it.. it brought wonderful memories of our earlier days and i totally loved it man.. (oops got caught up in the moment there..)