What's crisp and filled with something delicious? A Calzone!

What's a calzone? Simply put, it's a pizza crust wrapped around a topping. A calzone is just

a thin-crust pizza folded in half before you bake it with all the delicious ingredients tucked inside! This recipe is one of my favorites. I have doubled it easily or using the original amounts made the calzones half the size given. Either way, they come out absolutely delicious!

Spinach-Ricotta Calzone (courtesy of King Arthur)

Ingredients

Dough

• 2 cups (240g) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

• 1 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast

• 3/4 teaspoon table salt

• 1 tablespoon (14g) olive oil

• 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup (113g to 170g) water, lukewarm*

Filling

• 1 1/2 cups (283g) cooked spinach, squeezed completely dry

• 1 cup (227g) ricotta cheese, whole-milk or part-skim

• 1/2 cup (57g) freshly grated Parmesan cheese

• 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg

• 1/2 teaspoon table salt

• 
  

Topping (optional)

• tomato or pizza sauce

• shredded mozzarella cheese, or the pizza cheese of your choice
  

Corn meal for the pizza peel

Pizza Peel

pizza steel or pizza stone

Heating your pizza steel

If you are using a pizza steel, you will need to heat your steel at 450 for about 1 hour before you start to bake your calzones. I would say start heating it up about 1 hour into the dough rising. My oven takes forever to heat up so time accordingly. If you are using a pizza stone, follow the directions on pre heating your stone. The pizza steel will give you that wood fired oven crust as it does for a pizza.

To make the dough: Weigh your flour; or measure it by gently spooning it into a cup, then sweeping off any excess. Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl, and mix and knead — using your hands, a mixer, or a Cuisinart to make a soft, smooth dough.

1. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover it, and let it rise until it's just about doubled in size, about 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

2. Gently deflate the dough and turn it out onto a clean, floured work surface. Divide it in half. (4 pieces if you want a smaller calzone)

3. Working with one half at a time, (or quarter for a smaller calzone) roll the dough out to a 10" to 11" circle for the larger calzone or a approximately a 6-inch circle for a smaller calzone. Note: You can also use my dough recipe in my post "It's all about the Crust" That recipe is double this one and does use bread flour. Either will work for these calzones.

To make the filling

Combine all of the filling ingredients, stirring until well combined. You'll have about 2 cups of filling.

Assemble and bake

1. Place a dough circle on the corn meal dusted pizza peel. This will enable you to slide the calzone off the peel onto the steel or stone.

2. Spread half (or 1/4 of the filling depending on the size you are making) on each half of your dough circles. Fold the unfilled half over the filling, crimping and pressing the edges together to seal. (Seal tight so no filling escapes)

3. With a sharp knife cut 3 or 4 slits in the top of each calzone, to allow steam to escape. Brush with olive oil and top with shredded cheese.
   

4. Carefully slide each calzone onto your pizza steel or pizza stone. Depending how large the calzones are will determine how many you can get in at a time. If you are doing the large calzones, I can get two on my steel. If you are doing the smaller calzones, you should be able to get all four in. If you are using a stone, it will depend on the size of the stone.
   

5. Bake the calzone until they're golden brown, about 20 minutes. Keep an eye on it so it does not burn.

6. Remove the calzone from the oven and serve.

Note: You can add any ingredients to the calzones that you like. Peperoni, mushroom, garlic, etc. For the large calzone a cup of filling and for the small calzones about 1/2 cup.

You can serve these with a quick marinara sauce for dipping or serve them plain. Delicious either way! Here's a quick sauce that takes no more than 10 min to make.

Quick Marinara Sauce

I large can of tomato sauce

garlic (2 to three cloves) minced

olive oil (2 or 3 tablespoons)

Italian seasoning (one tablespoon or to taste)

red pepper flakes (optional)

Black pepper (1/2 teaspoon or to taste)

salt (I usually don't add salt as the tomato sauce has salt but add a little if you want)

Heat the oil over medium heat (a couple of tablespoons) in a medium fry pan.

Add your garlic and sauté for about a minute or two.

Add your tomato sauce and stir to combine.

Add some Italian seasoning (about 1 Tablespoon) and a little red pepper flakes if you want.

Add a little black pepper to taste.

Bring to a low boil and then simmer for about 10 minutes. Serve on the side with your calzones.

I've had a couple of people ask me about my pizza steel. The main question is "do I get enough use out of it to warrant its cost"? The answer is yes! Because not only do I use it for pizza, but I use it for anything that needs a hot surface to cook, and calzones are one of those things. I've used it for breads and have even done cookies on it! So, for us, the pizza steel has paid for itself, many times over. If you have one or thinking of getting one, this is excellent book to have. It's called "Baking with Steel: The Revolutionary New Approach to Perfect Pizza, Bread, and More".

I hope you are enjoying my posts, and I would love to hear from you. If there is anything you would like to hear more about, please let me know. Use the form on my site to subscribe so that you never miss any news!

Ciao!

Liz ❤️

(Any links in this post are affiliate links which I may be given a small compensation for if they are purchased through the link)