Pretzel Crusted Cheese Steak Sandwich Pocket #Recipe

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This is a sponsored post. I received a gift card to purchase ingredients in order to facilitate my post. Please note that, as always, any personal opinions reflected in this post are my own and have not been influenced by the sponsor in any way.

I have mentioned before how much I enjoy coming up with new recipes and meal ideas. It’s fun concocting and coming up with new recipes, but it can be just as much fun changing up an existing recipe that works into a new recipe that works. Recently the folks at Ragú challenged me to pick two of their recipes and see how I could put my own spin on them. I’m sure you know that Ragú has a good variety of different sauces, but did  you know that they also have a good variety of great tasting, quick and easy to make family favorite recipes? The first recipe I remade was their Upside-Down Deep Dish Pizza recipe, which I turned into a Cheesy Spinach And Sausage Stuffed Pizza.

The second recipe I chose to remake was their Italian Cheese Steaks, which look like this.

How to reinvent something that’s wonderful the way it is, that was the question. I didn’t really have to ponder it all that long. I got my inspiration from my oldest son. He loves pretzels. I buy pretzels by the jar and he frequently takes the jar into his room and it isn’t seen again until it’s down to the bottom and only has salt and crumbs left. He really loves steak, he could probably eat it every day. And he loves handheld food. So, I decided to stick with a steak sandwich, but to close it up and make it into a sealed sandwich or what you and I call a pocket.

The original Ragú Italian Cheese Steak recipe calls for a jar of Ragú Chunky Pasta Sauce. Changing the sauce to Ragú Old World Style Traditional Sauce seemed like a good idea since the 11 tomatoes in each jar make it the richest, thickest Ragú sauce. It’s pretty thick, a good thing as I wanted to use a thicker sauce for this. I felt that would stay on the meat and cheese better and not leak out the seams if they weren’t sealed super tight. Noone wants messy handheld food, right? So basically when compared to the Ragu recipe, I changed out everything for something similar.

Here’s how I made the Pretzel Crusted Cheese Steak Sandwich Pockets.

Pretzel Crusted Cheese Steak Sandwich Pocket

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb boneless round sandwich steak
• 1 refrigerated thin pizza crust
• 4 oz shredded cheddar cheese
• 2-4 pretzels (depends on size of your pretzels and how much pretzel you want on the crust)
• 2 cups Ragú Old World Style Traditional Sauce
• olive oil

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425 f.

While the oven is preheating, season the steak to suit your preference and cook. These steaks are thin and cook very quickly. Do not overcook the steak or cook it well, it will dry out. The steak should be just done or even slightly pink in the center. When the steak is cooked, slice it into strips, squares, or even small pieces.

Spread out the pizza crust. This recipe will make two pockets out of one crust. Cut the crust into two halves.

Place the steak in the middle of the crust in a line almost as long as the dough. Do this on both halves of the crust.

Place 1 cup of the sauce on top of the steak. You may be tempted to use more, but if you do it will be very hard to seal the pocket later. Besides, then you’d have nothing to dip the pocket in anyway!

Sprinkle half of the shredded cheese on each piece of crust.

Fold the ends of pizza crust over the top, forming a pocket shape. Repeat for the other piece of crust.

Press all seams of the pocket closed on the top, and pinch them shut on the sides.

Rub a very thin layer of olive oil across the entire crust. Repeat for the other piece of crust.

Put your pretzels into a baggie and break them up into small pieces with the flat side of a meat tenderizer. If you happen to have a big bag or jar of pretzels you may have enough pieces at the bottom of that and not even need to break up the pretzels. Sprinkle half of the pretzel dust and crumbs across the entire crust.

Bake for about 28 minutes, until crust is turning golden brown.

Serve immediately with sauce on the side for dipping.

Everyone loved this dish. The great thing about it is that you can change it up to suit your taste. Want to toss a couple of onions in? Go ahead. We all loved the crust, it was very tasty. This sandwich immediately became a new tra-dish here in our house.  If you’re looking for recipes, or inspirations to create your own new tra-dish, visit  Facebook.com/RaguSauce for additional quick, easy and delicious recipe ideas.

Also, be sure to visit www.RaguSweeps.com to enter the Ragú Better and Better Sweepstakes for a chance to win great Authentic Italian themed prizes and a grand prize trip to Venice for a family of four.

Abbreviated Sweepstakes Rules
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Legal residents of the 50 United States (D.C.) 18 years and older. Ends 5/6/14. To enter and for Official Rules, including odds, alternate method of entry, and prize descriptions, visit www.RaguSweeps.com. Void where prohibited.

What’s your favorite type of handheld sandwich? Leave a comment!