Making Calzone

Calzone, the perfect stuffed pizza folded over and baked, usually made as an individual serving and stuffed to perfection with various meats, vegetables and cheese, it’s the ultimate pizza pocket!
Start out with a pound of pizza dough, you can make your own or buy a good one, cut it into 4 equal pieces then let it rest to room temperature covered with a towel.
While your dough is resting you can get your filling ready, I like to use roasted veggies, always some spicy Italian sausage, precooked and sliced and a few different cheeses like fresh mozzarella, asiago and ricotta.
Oh, and some pretty green spinach and usually fresh basil I mix in with the ricotta.
Assemble your calzone with the ingredients of your choice, I made a vegetarian version and a meat one. Load your filling down the middle, not quite to the end, leaving some room for crimping. Take the top of the dough and fold it right over the filling to resemble a half moon, then crimp the edges.
Have your oven preheated to 400 degrees, then place the calzone on a baking sheet that has been brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with dry polenta or corn meal, doing this will ensure a nice crispy crust, and we like a nice crispy crust don’t we?
Make sure to brush the uncooked dough with olive oil, a little cracked pepper and a sprinkling of grated cheese before baking.

Bake for around 30 minutes or until a rich golden color develops. Warning!  Your house will smell amazing!

For my veggie version before each bite I swiped my calzone in some olive oil and balsamic glaze, crazy good!
The meat version was draped with warmed homemade marinara, the perfect companion.
Now go and make some calzone!

Buon Appetito

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PIZZA DOUGH!!! UNO, DUE, TRE!

SAUSAGE BREAD

I love having pizza dough in my freezer at all times, whether I make home made, or I buy it from my local Italian grocery, which by the way makes excellent dough! All you have to do is defrost it on your counter, and let it get to room temperature and your good to go!
This recipe of sausage bread I remember way back when I was a kid, I remember my Mom making this and we would eat it slice by slice. It’s sort of like a stromboli, but we always called it sausage bread. I like using hot Italian sausage because, between the dough and the cheese, it sort of cancels out some of the heat, and leaves a lot of flavor. There are many variations but mine is simply hot sausage, Fontina cheese, and lots of grated cheese like Romano.

Roll dough out and layer all ingredients on top (pre cook sausage) roll up jelly roll style.
Make 3 slits on top, brush with olive oil and sprinkled cheese. Bake at 375 degreesF till golden about 1/2 hour.

WHITE PIZZA

Traditional pizza is always a given, but sometimes we crave this white pizza, no sauce thank you! Again, I would imagine there are a ton of different variations, but mine was made with a blending of roasted garlic, Ricotta cheese, and a grated combo of Asiago, Fontina, Provolone, and Parmesan cheese’s. Make it like you would a regular pizza. It’s out of the norm, but quite delicious!!

CALZONE

Of course you can stuff these guys with anything you want, the skys the limit!! This one I made all veggie with a little mushroom, eggplant, and artichoke, add some sauce and mozzarella, fold it up and bake like a pizza. When you bite into it all those flavors come oozing out! Mmmmm

Buon Appetito!!

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