Sunday, February 26, 2012

Veggie Calzone

What is better than veggie pizza???  a veggie Calzone... or maybe not better but equally yummy on the taste buds.



Ingredients (enough for 2 calzones, feeds 4 people): 
Dough
3 1/4 cups of all purpose or bread flour (3 1/2 cups if you are living the "high life" 3,000+ feet)
1 1/4 cups of water
1/4 cup of Olive Oil
1 tsp of minced garlic
1 tsp of instant rapid rise yeast (room temp)


Filling
1 small container of ricotta cheese
2 cups of shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup of shredded parmesan
1 cup of sauted vegetables (spinach, onion, mushroom, broccoli - your choice)


Making the Calzone!

For two good size calzones (ie enough to feed 4 people), make 1 batch of basic pizza dough.  If you like a sweeter dough, you could add 1 tbsp of white sugar.  Let the dough sit, untouched, with a wet/ warm towell covering it - free from draft.  Your home should be 68 and above or it will take awhile for the dough to rise. The the dough sit for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.  When it is done rising, it should be doubled in size.

When you are ready to actually make the calzone.  Chop up your vegetables and saute in a little olive oil or I just use a a little bit of cooking spray to keep things from initially sticking.  You can choose whatever combo you like.  For this particular calzone, I used 6 button mushrooms, 1/2 red onion, 1 red pepper and 2 cups of spinach.


Mix together your blend of favorite cheeses -  My preferred blend is 1 container of ricotta, 2 cups of shredded mozzarella and 1/3 cup of Parmesan.




Prepare your work surface, by lightly dusting with flour.  Scoop out the dough and pull it into two balls.  If it  is sticky, knead in a little bit of flour.  Be careful to not overwork it or it will become tough during the baking process.



Roll out your dough.







Place your rolled out circle of dough on a baking sheet.  
Add half of the cheese mixture
Add the sauted vegetables

fold over the dough and press down the edge to close the seam.
Baste the dough with a little bit melted butter.
Sprinkle with a little bit of garlic salt.

Bake at 400-425 degrees for 20-25 minutes.  Lower temp for high elevation folks.

Pull it out when it is nicely browned on top... or in this case when the cheese explodes... LOL


Serve with a side of your favorite marinara sauce, share with your favorite person and enjoy!





1 comment:

  1. This looks so delicious. am reading your post and am all of a sudden really hungry, despite having had dinner...
    what a wonderful way to hide veggies :-) will make that soon and hopefully get them past (or better into) my daughter.
    love
    jutta

    ReplyDelete