Skip the Pizza, Make a Calzone!

You can see how much spinach shrinks inside!

Not exactly craving pizza, but up for Italian?  Try making your own calzones!  It’s really not that difficult.  If you have all of the ingredients you would for making a homemade pizza, you are good to go, I’ll show you how—

What you’ll need:

• 1 short can of tomato sauce (about 5-6 oz. in the store for ~ 30-40cents ea)-season this how you like it, or have it straight

• 2 cups finely shredded mozzarella cheese

• olive oil, for brushing

• Stuffing ingredients!  (Ex.: raw spinach, sautéed mushrooms, onion, garlic, black olives, pepperoni, etc. etc.  I pre-saute anything that might take a while to get a to a cooked state, BECAUSE this is only going to be in the oven for about 20 minutes.  Avoid extra juicy items like tomatoes)

1. Make two thin pizza crusts*(see below)
2. Shape them with two long sides (parallel) and two convex sides (fanning out)
3. Place the crusts on baking sheets
4. Add your stuffing ingredients, cheese, sauce and any herbs/seasoning from the halfway mark out to one side, KEEP clear about 1” along the edges
5. Gently bring the empty side over the filled side to meet
6. Fold the bottom edge over the top edge (gives you about  1/2” lip) and use a fork to press and secure the lip
7. Use your fingers or gently brush a small amount of olive oil over the top, sides and lip of the crust
8. Bake at 425 for approximately 20-25 minutes, calzone is done when the crust feels solid and has turned just slightly golden brown

Slice open with a pizza cutter and enjoy!

Thin Pizza Crust Recipe/calzone crust recipe

 This is a wonderful recipe, I’ve been using it for years, it goes together quickly with a hand mixer, and tastes great, but most importantly, it cooks likes it’s supposed to.

Ingredients (for 2 crusts)

2 C flour + extra for rolling

1 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

1/4 C margarine

3/4 C milk

Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl

Cut in margarine (with a hand mixer to save time)

Add milk, mix

Divide into two halves and roll out until very thin, about 12-16 inches in diameter

For calzone, shape and proceed

For pizza crust, brush edges lightly with olive oil and pre-bake for 5-8 minutes at 450 degrees, then add toppings and bake for 15 minutes