Calzones

Call it folded pizza, call it savory turnover, either way, calzones are a wonderful and filling meal-to-go. I like making a few and freezing them for easy and quick lunches. They taste best when they are fresh out of the oven, though.

The filling usually depends on my mood and things that are handy. Almost always I stuff it with some part-skim mozarella or ricotta, sun-dried tomatoes, capers, onions, pickled jalapenos, pineapple, olives, pepperoncinis and maybe some soy sausage chunks.

Any regular pizza dough recipe would work - I like the Neopolitan pizza dough recipe I found in one of my cook books with Italian favorites.

But, many times, for a quicker version, I just use the one that came with my bread machine. I use the dough-only cycle in the bread machine to get the dough ready and then roll it out, fill it, fold and seal it and bake it. The recipe here makes about 6 calzones.

Ingredients:
Dough:
2½ cup all-purpose flour
2¼ tsp active dry yeast
1 cup water
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt

some milk for brushing

Filling:
anything goes really, any pizza toppings - sometimes I throw in some broccoli or even spinach - typically, sun-dried tomatoes, capers, onions, olives, pineapple, soy sausage chunks, and
freshly grated mozarella, or ricotta
thick tomato sauce or pesto

Preparation

Activate the yeast in some lukewarm water; combine the dry ingredients on a work surface and make a well in the center, pour the active yeast; add a little water at a time and knead into a smooth elastic dough; place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with a kitchen towel, set aside in a warm place for about an hour to rise; punch down and let it rise again

Heat the oven to 375°F; grease a cookie sheet and keep handy

Divide the dough into 6 equal portions or more if you make a smaller calzone; roll it out to about ¼-inch thick rounds; spread some sauce or pesto, add the filling on one half, fold it over and pinch the edges with a fork or fingers; brush with milk (some prefer brushing with egg-wash, but, i prefer milk - for a nice glaze)

Bake in 375°F oven for about 25-30 minutes or until golden brown on the outside and the dough is cooked through

I usually sacrifice one to make sure they are ready to come out of the oven :-)