At Home: Calzones

A calzone is an Italian filled oven bread, originating in Naples, and shaped as a folded pizza. It often resembles a half-moon and is made of salted bread dough. A typical calzone is baked in an oven and stuffed with meats, cheeses, and vegetables.  Basically, anything you'd put on top of a pizza, you can put inside a calzone. These were one of my favorite treats as a kid, and still are a favorite today.  We made easy calzones on What Micky Eats...At Home.

Calzone

• ¼ cup sliced mushrooms
• ½ cut sliced pepperoni
• 1 can (13.8 oz) Pillsbury™ refrigerated classic pizza crust
• 1½ shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 cup marinara sauce

- Heat oven to 425 degrees. 

- Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray.

- In skillet, cook mushrooms over medium heat; season with salt and pepper.

- Unroll dough. Cut dough in half lengthwise. 

- On cookie sheet, press or roll each dough portion into 7x5-inch rectangle. 

- Spoon ricotta on one side of each rectangle. Layer with mushrooms and/or pepperoni and then mozzarella cheese.

- Fold dough over filling; press edges firmly with fork to seal.

- Bake 15 to 17 minutes or until golden brown. 

- Heat marinara sauce; serve with warm calzones.

Yum! Using the Pillsbury pizza dough as the crust on these calzones made sure they were buttery and flaky.  We made one each of the mushroom and pepperoni.  But try filling them with whatever your favorite pizza toppings are: sausage, bell peppers, onions, bacon, olives... you can't go wrong, as long as you have lots of cheese.