We were watching a cooking show about calzone, and my immediate thought was – I could do that! Whether it would turn out any good and whether we would enjoy it or not, of course, would be another matter!
I already make our own pizzas and on the show they used pizza dough (although further research suggested that bread dough is also used) and for a filling our often used ricotta and silver beet would work very well. The process we use for making our own pizza dough is available here, and the recipe for the ricotta and silver beet filling (using home-made ricotta and home grown silver beet, eggs and onions of course!) is available here.
So, you have a batch of pizza dough and a batch of ricotta and silver beet filling ready to go, now what?
If you have made the same amount of pizza dough as in my recipe, this will effectively make four good sized calzone, each one making a meal for one person, or two enormous ones for sharing, or for big eaters! Likewise the amount of silver beet and ricotta in my recipe should neatly fill the calzone. Ok, with maybe a bit left over.
To make the calzone (four of them) cut the pizza dough into quarters, take one quarter and roll it into a ball between your hands, then pat it out into a circle. With a rolling pin, roll it out until it is 200mm in diameter or a bit more, and circular. Place a good sized scoop of the filling onto one half of the dough, leaving a clear space of 1.5 – 2 cm around the bottom edge. Get a bit of water on your fingers and run it around the bottom edge of the dough.
To form the calzone, pick up the far end of the dough and stretch it up and over the filling, pressing the top edge down onto the clear space at the edge of the filling to form a seal. Then twist the edge back on itself to form a decorative edging. This should give you a semi-circular calzone. To finish it, cut three small slits in the top to let steam out during cooking and give it an egg wash to make the top nice and shiny after cooking.
Place them on a baking tray and bake the finished calzones in the oven at 220°C for around 15 minutes, but keep an eye on them, they may take a bit shorter or longer depending on your oven. When they are golden brown, remove from the oven and serve.
And yes, my fears were groundless, they were delicious!
