Thursday, November 6, 2008

3 Cheese Calzones

A great Sunday afternoon, family-friendly (make your own), delicious meal.

This is a great meal if you're looking to empty your "italian" fridge. We didn't have mozzarella or parmesan, so we just used random slices of cheese that we had on hand (swiss, manchego, provolone) and they were still great. Instead of salami (for the girls) I sub'd for freshly sliced tomato. I'm sure a sausage/red sauce calzone would be great too. You could put *anything* italian in these and they'd be great!

Serves 4; Total time 35 minutes (includes baking).

Ingredients
1 lb refrigerated pizza dough.
1 C fresh ricotta
1C grated mozzarella
1/4 C grated parmesan
1 bunch (or a 1/2 bag) spinach (remove stems); roughly chopped
Black pepper
3/4lb thinly sliced salami
2T olive oil
1 C jarred marinara sauce, warmed

Directions
  1. Heat oven to 400.
  2. On a lightly floured surface, divide the dough into 4 equal parts.
  3. Roll dough into balls (here is where your kids will love it!)
  4. Roll each portion into a circle (8" rounds).
  5. Place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
  6. In a large bowl, combine ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, spinach and 1/4t pepper.
  7. Layer the salami on the bottom of each dough portion (if using tomatoes, don't put them on the bottom b/c the liquid will destroy the dough, place on top of cheese/spinach mixture).
  8. Top salami w/ cheese mixture.
  9. Fold dough over the filling and pinch edges to seal (again your kids can help here) to make that calzone.
  10. Brush tops of calzone w/ oil.
  11. Bake until golden (12-15 minutes).
  12. Serve w/ sauce (and/or salad)

0 comments: