AIP rosemary and prosciutto stromboli - a sweet potato and tapioca dough rolled around prosciutto and fresh rosemary, baked until gooey inside and crisp outside

Months into an elimination phase, the food people miss most is often the food they used to eat without thinking, a hot, gooey pocket of dough eaten standing at the counter. This stromboli gets there without a shred of cheese in it. The trick is sweet potato mashed smooth and bound with tapioca starch, and once it bakes, it pulls and stretches the way melted cheese does. That is real kitchen chemistry at work, and it holds up.

The potassium here comes from the white sweet potato itself, a source alongside a slow-digesting starch that keeps energy steadier than a straight sugar spike would. Choose an orange-fleshed variety instead, and you also pick up beta-carotene, the pigment behind the body's vitamin A supply. The prosciutto is cured pork, so treat this as an occasional dish rather than a low-histamine staple, and when you buy it, look for a producer that raises its animals with real care, then check the label, since a surprising number of cured meats hide dairy in the curing process.

Roll the dough thin so the ratio of crisp exterior to soft center is right, and take the broiling step seriously. It moves fast under high heat, and the parchment can catch if you look away, so stay at the oven rather than wandering off. Once it is out, let it rest a minute before you cut it, then watch the steam rise off the center before the first bite. That short pause is doing more work than it seems, settling both the filling and you.

Ingredients

• 1 cup cooked, cooled, mashed white-fleshed sweet potato (a white-fleshed, purple-skinned Japanese yam or Hannah variety; an orange one works and is sweeter and less starchy)
• 1/2 cup tapioca starch or arrowroot starch
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
• 4 to 6 slices prosciutto (or a freshly cooked, thinly sliced clean-label meat for a lower-histamine version)
• 1 tablespoon duck fat, bacon fat, or lard

Method

Bake or microwave the sweet potato rather than boiling it, since boiling adds water and loosens the dough. Cool it, then mash it completely smooth with no lumps.

Stir the salt into the mash. Work in the starch a quarter cup at a time until the mixture comes together into a dough ball.

Turn the dough out onto a sheet of parchment and roll it into a rectangle about a quarter inch thick. Rolling it thinner gives a better crisp-to-gooey ratio.

Scatter the rosemary over the dough and lay the prosciutto across it. Starting from a short side, roll the dough into a log.

Brush the log with the fat and bake at 375 F for about 30 minutes. Brush it again, then broil for 2 to 3 minutes to crisp the top. Watch the parchment closely during the broil so it does not scorch.

Let it rest a minute or two before slicing.

Instant Pot variation

The Instant Pot is not the tool for this dish. The dough needs the dry, crisping heat of an oven and a broiler, which a pressure cooker cannot give. Use the oven method above. The only stovetop or appliance shortcut worth using is baking or microwaving the sweet potato ahead of time, never boiling it.

Air fryer variation

A small stromboli can finish in an air fryer if your oven is occupied. Roll and fill it as above, then air fry at around 360 F for 12 to 15 minutes, brushing with fat partway through and checking early, since air fryers run hot and the dough browns fast. This conversion is untested in our kitchen, so treat the time as a starting range and watch it closely.

*Adapted from grazedandenthused.com*