I’m not really big into Pizza – but a good Calzone with all my favorite goodies in it and an excellent marinara to dip it in – I could eat that every day for a week!
As I understand it, Calzones were invented so the common man could enjoy pizza while working and the goodies didn’t fall out. Whatever that reason was, they are wonderful!
You get to choose what to put in them, how crunchy to bake them and how much marinara to eat it with. I’m a light dipper, and my husband is a pour it all over the top person. It’s all up to you, and any way you like it is the Right way,
Calzone Fillings
This is Completely up to you. I will just list what we like to put in ours.
LOTS of fresh Mozzarella
Pepperoni
Canadian Bacon
Italian Sausage (browned and drained)
Green Pepper
Red Pepper
Onion
Black Olives
Mushrooms (I LOVE fresh, but for this it’s best to use canned. Fresh will become very wet while baking and leave you with soggy dough – I’ve made that mistake more than once.}
Calzone Dough
1 cup warm Water
1 pkg Yeast
1/4 tsp Sugar
Whisk together and let proof for 15 minutes. Add 2 T Olive Oil
3 cups Bread Flour
1 T Sugar
2 tsp Salt
In a large mixing bowl, blend flour, sugar and salt. Add yeast mixture and blend until it forms a dough. Knead until dough is smooth.
Place in a greased bowl, flip dough once then cover and let rise for 1 hour. Punch down dough and split into 4 balls. Cover again and let rise for 30 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Prepare a baking sheet that has a lip by lining it with parchment paper and giving it a light sprinkle of cornmeal.
Roll out each ball to make a 10 to 12 inch circle. Fill one half of the circle with your choice of pizza fillings. Fold and stretch the other half of the circle over the top and pinch down the edges. Then starting at one corner, roll up about an inch of the edge and pinch again. Roll and pinch, roll and pinch. This process only moves you about an inch or so each roll, but you are trying to trap all that cheesy goodness inside the dough.
Place your calzone on the lined baking sheet. Slice about 4 small slices across the top for steam to escape. Bake for at least 30 minutes. It may take longer. Wait for a nice deep golden brown color. Remove from oven and brush with Olive Oil. Let them rest for 5 minutes before serving.
Serve with your favorite warmed Marinara. My recipe is below.
Marinara
1/4 cup Olive Oil
1 cup Onion, diced
3 cloves Garlic, minced
1/4 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
4 cups fresh Roma Tomatoes, halved, cored and seeded
1 T Sugar
1/4 cup fresh Basil Leaves, chopped
Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and cook until soft, about 6 minutes. Stir in garlic and pepper flakes – sauté for 1 minute. Add tomatoes and sugar. Cook until tomatoes are soft, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and pulse with an immersion blender, a counter blender or in a food processor (leaving it a little chunky). Then add basil.
If you do not have 4 cups of fresh tomatoes, you can use a combination of fresh and canned tomatoes.
Chopping herbs is never easy – so for Basil, the best way I know how to chop it is – take all the largest leaves that you have and place them in an overlapping row on your cutting board. Pile all the smaller leaves on top of your large ones and then carefully roll up the large leaves with the small ones inside. (Looks like you are rolling a cigar.) Now you have a nice tight round that you can chop into thin ribbons, then turn the board and chop the other way. Works great.
