Over Spring Break, we ate at this great little Italian restaurant in Vista, CA. I had a calzone which quickly became the focus of everyone at the table’s appetites. I did get to eat about half of it, the other half I happily shared with the rest of my family. Since they seemed to like it so much, I thought I’d better make some for dinner at home. I tried a different recipe than the ones I’d made before, too, just to see how they would turn out.
Ingredients:
1 1/3 pounds raw Italian sweet sausage, casing removed
A drizzle olive oil
2 cups ricotta
2 cloves garlic, chopped
A handful grated Parmigiano, plus extra, for knots
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated or a couple pinches of ground
A few grinds black pepper
2 (10-ounce) tubes prepared pizza dough
2 cups shredded mozzarella
Garlic oil (1 or 2 cloves chopped and heated in 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil)
2 cups marinara or pizza sauce for dipping
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 425 F.
Brown sausage in a small skillet in a drizzle of olive oil. Transfer the cooked crumbled sausage to a paper towel lined plate to drain.
Combine sausage with ricotta, garlic, Parmigiano, nutmeg and pepper. Roll out dough and halve cross-wise. Place a dough rectangle on a nonstick cookie sheet. Use 1/2 cup mozzarella on half of each dough rectangle and pile a mound of filling on half of the total area. Fold dough over and pinch edges to seal. The result is a rectangular turnover.
For half-moon shaped calzones, trim excess dough. Roll dough bits into strips, tie in knots and brush with garlic oil and cheese. Garlic knots are fun to dip at the table.
Bake calzones 10-12 minutes or until golden all over. Serve calzones with warm tomato, marinara, or pizza sauce for dipping.
Did I change anything? The original recipe called for pimentos. Yuck. We left those out. I added about 1/4 finely chopped zucchini.
What did the family think? Yummo! I will say that I liked the calzones I made back in November better though.
from Food Network
