CORONAVIRUS CALZONES 2020

During this 'stay at home' scenario, I have been learning how to make breads.  So far, with the help of my youngest, we made focaccia.  I have also made banana bread, zucchini bread, apple cakes, pizza dough and today--yeast dough for calzones.

Mr.Thrifty reminisces from time to time, a place at West Point where the guys would go to buy calzones and a drink.  They were the best calzones he had ever tasted and they were made with ricotta cheese in the inside.   With a little effort, I looked on the internet and found multiple recipes with this significant ingredient. 

Yesterday, I got to task to recreate the calzones.  I made up the filling, set it aside and started in on the dough.  After using up the dough and having over half of the filling leftover, I asked Mr. Thrifty what he thought of the 1st batch. He liked it but I realized that the tops were poofing up and there could have been more filling put inside. 

 He went to the laptop to look for YouTube videos on pizza/calzone dough.  He came up with 3 interesting points.  Authentic great calzones use a fork to seal their edges prior to cooking, they score an X on the top to let steam out and after taking them out of the oven, they brush a little bit of olive oil on them.

So, let's get to it.  First, the recipe.

Working on the dough in the Kitchen Aid mixer.



Cooking the Italian sausage and diced onions.



Letting the dough rest for an hour.



 Mixing the cheeses and spices in  for the filling.

My favorite quick marinara sauce.

6 inch dough

First, I laid 1 Tablespoon of marinara down on the dough.  Next came the filling.

Before cooking.



This is one of the second batch of calzones.  Notice the X scored on top.  They were also brushed with olive oil after baking.

This next picture shows the difference between the first batch(to the left) and the second batch.  There is only room for more improvement is the next few tries.

On the second batch after laying down the marinara, I placed 4 slices of pepperoni down prior to the Italian sausage mixture.  I increased the filling to about 1/4 cup instead of 1/8th as shown in the recipe.  This gives the calzone a better crust/filling ratio.



I packaged the remaining calzones in parchment and then in a freezer zip lock bag.  The next day, I thawed 2 and placed them in the toaster oven at 300 degrees for 20 minutes. They tasted as fresh as the previous day's calzones.

This recipe is a keeper!