How to Make a Real Pizzeria Style Calzone.

What is a Calzone?

The Calzone originated in Naples, Italy; an oven-baked filled pizza, folded over itself. A typical calzone is made from salted bread dough, baked in an oven after being stuffed with salami or ham, mozzarella, ricotta, Parmesan and/or Pecorino-Romano cheese, as well as an egg. In the United States, the calzone is baked using pizza dough; often vegetables are found included in the filling.

Cheddar Cheese does NOT belong in Italian recipes; reserve that for grilled cheese sandwiches please!!!

Now when the definition says "stuffed", it means stuffed!  NOT hollow with a slice of cheese and meat; that's called a "rip-off".  It's NOT a turnover; that is a pastry using some type of sweet, pastry dough with sweet fillings.  Coming from old school, not yuppie-ville, Brooklyn, New York, we connaisseurs of pizzeria, and Italian, dishes are highly insulted when novice "pizza shop" owners try to fool their patrons. 

First off, you need to have the basics down on pizza dough and sauce making.   While pizza dough needs to be made from scratch, homemade sauce does not; in fact, most places use canned goods which is fine so long as it's done correctly!  Now I have written about all this on separate blog posts, but now I'll be consolidating.

Step #1 - Dough

Pizza Dough:
http://www.comfortcookadventures.com/2011/01/i-admit-to-itim-pizza-snob.html

Basic Dough

Ingredients:

1 cup of warm water
3 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 teaspoons of sugar (to feed the yeast)
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of yeast

Preparation:

Put warm water (80 to 110°F) into a bowl. Add salt and sugar and mix with a spoon. Add
yeast, mix and let it sit for about 10 minutes.  If the water is too warm, it will
kill the yeast; too cold, and it will not awaken.

Start mixing, with a fork, by gradually adding flour and olive oil.  Once it is too
thick to mix by fork, remove to a floured, wooden board; start kneading by hand. 
Knead the dough until you have a smooth ball. If the dough cracks it is too dry. Add
water bit by bit until if forms a smooth ball. If your dough feels more like batter,
it is too wet and you need to add flour bit by bit. If you need to add water or flour,
do it by small amounts; it is easier to fix too little than too much.

Coat the dough with olive oil, place it in a large bowl and cover it with a clean,
cotton towel. Let the dough rise for about an hour at room temperature, then punch it
down, so it deflates. Let it sit for about another hour. If you want to use it the
next day, put it in a refrigerator wrapped in plastic wrap.

Put the dough on a lightly floured surface; a pizza peel (wooden board with a handle)
is easier for transferring the pizza from surface to surface. Put a bit of flour on
your hands; using the balls of your finger tips and hands, make it into the shape of a
circle by stretching it out from the center outwards. If you’re having a problem
stretching the dough by hand, se a rolling pin until the dough is about 1/4" thick.

The average size of the pizza will be about 16” which can be transferred to a pizza
pan or stone. You get better results when you use a pizza baking stone. The pizza
stone should be preheated to 450F for an hour prior to baking, and should be placed in
the middle of the oven.

Spread out evenly about 1-1 ½ cups sauce; then add favorite toppings such as cheeses,
meats and/or cut up vegetables.

The oven should be preheated to 450F.  Bake for 20-25 minutes; the crust should be
browned, but not dark.  Remove from oven, use a pizza cutter for easy slicing up and
serve.  Makes 8-10 slices, depending on how its cut up.

Step #2 - Sauce

Homemade Sauce Using Canned Tomatoes:
http://www.comfortcookadventures.com/2011/01/influencing-your-cooking-style.html

Homemade Pasta Sauce

Ingredients:

1 large onion, diced
3 Tbsp. garlic
3-28 oz. cans crushed tomatoes
1-28 oz. can diced tomatoes
1-12oz. can tomato paste
2 Tbsp. dried basil, crushed
1 Tbsp. each dried oregano, thyme and marjoram, crushed
1 tsp. ground black pepper
4 Tbsp. grated parmesan cheese

Preparation:

Add all listed ingredients into a 6-qt crock pot (previously sprayed with non-stick
spray); mix thoroughly.   Set on low heat; let the sauce cook for 8 hours.

Yields about 14 cups.

Notes:
This recipe can be made on the stovetop, but should be stirred every 1-2 hours to keep
sauce from sticking and burning on bottom of pot. 

The long cooking time allows for the sauce to become richer and thicker.  If a thinner
sauce is desired, cut the tomato paste by half, leave out the diced tomatoes, and cut
cooking time in half.

Besides serving as a pasta sauce, this can be used as a dipping sauce for fried foods,
or as a pizza sauce.

If making a meat sauce, brown 2 lbs of lean ground beef mixed with 2 Tbsp garlic
powder.  Only use 2-28 oz cans of crushed tomatoes, instead of 3.  Only cook the sauce
for 6 hours, instead of 8.

One ingredients that is popular in calzones is meatballs; here is my basic meatball recipe, but if using them for a calzone, make them about 1 to 1 and 1/2 inch in diameter.  Or just make the large size and cut them into halves or quartered.

Meatballs:
http://www.comfortcookadventures.com/2011/03/full-moons-and-meatballs.html

Meatballs

Lean ground beef (90% or more) is best for meatballs, since they are finished off
cooking in sauce.  Actually, meatloaf mix which is a mixture of beef, pork and veal is the absolute best for making meatballs, but is often difficult to find at the supermarket.  If a lesser lean meat is used, the fat would seep into the sauce, making it oily and unappetizing.  The meatballs are first baked in an oven to remove any excess grease.  These meatballs are the typical New York Italian style, about the size of a tennis ball, and while great with a pasta dish, they can also be used for
meatball sandwiches (subs, heroes, grinders, or whatever they are called in an area).

Ingredients:

4 lbs. lean ground beef (90% or more)
2 lbs. ground pork
1 ½ cups Italian seasoned dry bread crumbs
1/8 cup Italian seasoning mix
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 cup diced onion
¾ cup milk
2 eggs, beaten

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350F.  Spray jelly roll pans with nonstick spray.

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients together thoroughly; making sure all dry
ingredients are mixed well with wet ingredients.  Form the meat mixture into balls,
about 2 ¾” (size of a tennis ball); place on jelly roll pans.










Bake meatballs for 20 minutes; dab on paper towels to remove any grease and immerse
into sauce.  Allow meatballs to cook in sauce until sauce is ready; 4-6 hours
depending on cooking technique being used.  Serve with pasta, or use meatballs for a
sandwich.

Makes about 20 meatballs.











Now to the calzone making part; preheat oven to 450F and place the pizza pan (nonstick is best) inside; the dough has been worked out to a 16 inch diameter.  Along one half, layer thin slices of mozzarella and provolone leaving 2 inches of dough untouched from the edge.  I use the Sargento brand as they melt slowly and evenly; creating a seal against the dough to keep juices from making the baking crust not brown, or get soggy.  Next top the thin slices with thicker slices of fresh mozzarella; spread 2 cups of ricotta cheese over the mozzarella.  Evenly spread out 1 and 1/2 cups of sauce and add 5-6 small meatballs.

Dab the dough edge all around with water, carefully fold the other half of the dough over the fillings, bring the edges to touch and roll them together to form a seal.  Brush the top with a little olive oil, with the tip of a knife, poke 4-5 air holes in the thickest part of the calzone.  This will allow steam to release during the baking process; otherwise it would build up inside the dough and cause it to fully crack open.

Carefully remove the preheated pan from the oven and place the calzone in the center; return to the oven and bake until crust is browned (about 25-30 minutes).  Again, carefully remove the calzone to a cutting board to rest for 5 minutes.  Cut in half and enjoy!

So there you have it, a New York style calzone stuffed, and I mean stuffed, with cheeses, sauce and meatballs.  If you begin seeing this little baby at your local pizza shop, I bet they're copying my recipes; and they better name that calzone after me!!!

Mary Cokenour

Florentine or Italian for Spinach Involved.

When a recipe has the name "Florentine" (pronounced "FLOR-en-teen"), or the term "à la Florentine", as part of its name, it refers to a dish that is prepared in the style of Florence, Italy. In other words, it involves spinach as a main ingredient in the recipe; a sauce and/or cheese may also be used in the full creation of the dish.

So it came to pass that I found tilapia on sale, and as much as I enjoy simply baking it with lemon and dill, it was time to experiment.  I remembered having a Florentine type dish at a restaurant once, so decided I was going to make it from scratch.  Personally, I think I did a bang up job on it; with simple ingredients and prep work to boot.  Now I wonder, tilapia is such a mild flavored fish; how would this recipe work with salmon?

Tilapia Florentine

(Spinach Stuffed Tilapia)

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp. diced red bell pepper

6 tsp. olive oil 
4 oz. fresh baby spinach
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. Italian herbal mix
1/4 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
2 (6 oz. each) tilapia fillets

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375F; spray 1 quart baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

In a small skillet, medium-high heat, sauté red bell pepper in two teaspoons of olive oil until softened; add in spinach, drizzle two teaspoons oil over leaves and cook until wilted. 

In a medium bowl, thoroughly combine egg, garlic, herbal mix, cheeses; gently fold in spinach mixture.  Cut slit into tilapia lengthwise (not all the way through); with tip of knife cut halfway into both sides of the fish to create a pocket.  Stuff half the mixture into each fillet; place into baking dish and drizzle remaining two teaspoons of oil over the fish.

Bake 20-25 minutes; until fish is flaky and filling is warm throughout. (Remember, I live at a higher altitude, so your baking time might be 15 to 20 minutes instead.)

Makes 2 servings.

Mary Cokenour

Lasagna Without Using Your Noodle.

Now I've made traditional Italian lasagna using noodles; I've made vegetable lasagna, again, using noodles. What happens though when, instead of pasta noodles, vegetables themselves become the noodles?  While I did have large zucchinis which I could have sliced lengthwise thinly; I decided to try it out with eggplant; sort of as if lasagna and eggplant parmigiana decided to have a baby.

Eggplant is a spongy type of vegetable; when fried in oil, it will absorb a good deal of the oil.  However, I didn't want my lasagna to be a soppy, oily mess and made the decision to oven fry the eggplant slices.  If it works for potatoes, why not eggplant, right?  By the way, to make it a bit more interesting, I sautéed green bell peppers and grape tomatoes (look like miniature Roma tomatoes) together and made that one of the layers.  In my opinion, this addition made the entire dish come together into a delicious perfection; but then again, I'm biased.

Eggplant Lasagna

 Ingredients:

1 large eggplant

1 cup Italian flavored bread crumbs
2 eggs
½ cup milk
1 small green bell pepper
1 pint grape tomatoes
1 Tbsp. olive oil
½ tsp salt
½ tsp garlic powder
1 (32 oz.) container part-skim ricotta cheese
1 (8 oz.) package finely shredded mozzarella cheese; divided in half
3 cups homemade pasta sauce

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350F; spray baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray, and a 2 and ½ quart baking dish.

 

Cut ends off the eggplant and peel off skin; cut into ¼ inch slices.  Place bread crumbs onto flat plate; lightly beat eggs and milk together in a wide mouth bowl.  Dip the eggplant slices into the egg mixture, then lightly bread on both sides; place on baking sheet.  Bake for 5 minutes on one side; turn over, bake for another 5 minutes; remove from oven, but keep oven at 350F.

 

While eggplant is baking; take seeds out of the bell pepper, cut into strips and then dice; cut the tomatoes into halves.  In a 10 inch skillet, heat olive oil on medium-high; add in the bell pepper, tomatoes, salt and garlic powder.  Sauté for 5 minutes, remove from heat.

 

 

 

In a medium bowl, combine ricotta and 4 ounces of shredded mozzarella; if using whole milk ricotta, add one egg when mixing to achieve smoothness. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the sprayed baking dish, spread one cup of sauce on the bottom; place 3 slices of eggplant on bottom.  Spread half the cheese mixture over the eggplant; spread half the vegetable mixture over the cheese.   Repeat process: one cup sauce, 3 eggplant, half cheese, half vegetables, one cup sauce and remaining eggplant slices.  Top the entire casserole with the other half of the shredded mozzarella; bake for 30-35 minutes (cheese is melted and sauce is bubbling up).  Remove from oven; let sit for 15 minutes before serving.

 

 

 

 

Makes six servings.

Mary Cokenour

Pasta Prima is Natural and Green.

Pasta Prima

Website: http://www.pastaprima.com/

While shopping at the Safeway in Cortez, Colorado, I came across one of those little refrigerated display cases. Inside were all kinds of cheeses, cured meats and fresh (not dried) pasta products; one being the Pasta Prima brand. Immediately the package of Lobster Ravioli caught my eye; the cost was $5.99 for 10 ravioli with a seasoning packet, so I decided to try it.

 

The ravioli are large and an orange color similar to that of a lobster; cooking them to package directions, the pasta was tender and quite delicious itself. Now according to the package, lobster is the first ingredient listed and you can see it minced up inside the filling; ricotta cheese, herbs and tomatoes (probably used for the pasta coloring) were also high up on the listing. I was very surprised to be able to taste the lobster itself, even though it was minced; there was a strong flavor, so you knew what it was called was what you were eating. The ricotta cheese was creamy; and the filling was just enough to keep the ravioli from splitting open, yet be satisfying to the mouth.

I've have tried other brands of fresh pasta, but the taste and presence of lobster was just not there; not so with Pasta Prima brand.  For the supermarket price, two people can enjoy a decadent meal without paying the cost of a fancy restaurant.   Gourmet filled ravioli can also be found with Spinach and Mozzarella or Grilled Chicken with Mozzarella fillings, and I'm looking forward to trying those out also.

Pasta Prima's products are 100% natural, no preservatives used; they also have a gluten free product.  The company prides itself on being green; using energy from renewable wind and solar sources.  If your supermarket carries this brand, try it; if not, ask the management to bring it in; the treat is worth the price.

Mary Cokenour

A sweet tooth's paradise - The Italian Bakery

Basically, I let it be known that the most I miss about the East Coast is the food. Roy and I have discussed the question of "would we ever go back East?" The answer is that it would have to be for a very, very good reason; and we probably wouldn't feel very comfortable. Comparing the wide open spaces of where we live now to the traffic and people congested areas of New York City, Philadelphia and Lancaster...no comparison. Our area wins. Comparing the clean air, the blue sky, the overall feel good feeling to pollution that is quite visible, smells that would make a skunk gag and overall feeling of oppression...no comparison. What did Roy say to me the other day, oh yes, "hun, you may have been a city girl because you lived there, but deep down, you ain't no city girl." He's right, I never was very comfortable living in large city areas.

We did travel up to the Salt Lake City area once, and once was enough. I have driven many of the highways of the East: Long Island Expressway, Belt Parkway, Schuylkill River Parkway, I-95; to just name a few and they didn't bother me. The highways in the Salt Lake City area are terrifying!!! Yeah, if they can scare me, then they must be bad; must be all the pollution because of the Salt Lake; it has eaten holes in the brain of the basic driver. See, that's another reason I like the area we live in now; our version of a traffic jam is three pickup trucks in front of you as you're driving down either Rte 191 or Rte 491; and the passing lane is a mile away.

So what has this all to do with the Italian Bakery, nothing really, I was just venting. Anyway, the Italian Bakery is a wonderous place to tantalize all the senses. The smell of baking, the sight of decorated cakes, the taste of crispy cookies, hearing the workers speak in a romantic language, the feel of a loaf of real Italian bread and the overall feeling of contentment. Little by little I have been learning to recreate recipes from the Italian Bakery; no folks, we don't have such a wonderland in our area. If you do, appreciate it!!!

I'm already quite adept at making Tiramisu and Cheesecakes; and finding a place in Durango, Colorado that sells mascarpone cheese is a big plus.

Now I have decided to tackle cookies, not your typical chocolate chip or sugar cookies, but Italian cookies. The first is a chocolate meringue cookie called "Brutti Ma Buoni" which translates to "ugly but good". The second is a cookie made with ricotta cheese and is basically a simple cake like cookie, not overly sweet and putting a glaze or frosting on them is optional.

Brutti Ma Buoni
(In Italian, it means “ugly but good”; this is a meringue cookie which contains nuts and Amaretto.)

Ingredients:
8 egg whites
1 tsp white vinegar
½ tsp cream of tartar
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp Amaretto
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 cup each of chopped hazelnuts and almonds

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350F; lightly butter and flour cookie sheets.

In a large bowl, beat egg whites, vinegar and cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Continue to beat, while adding 2 tablespoons at a time of the sugar, until stiff peaks form; beat in the Amaretto.

Gently fold in the cocoa powder and nuts, so as to not deflate the egg whites. Drop, by tablespoon, the mixture onto the cookie sheets; bake for 15-20 minutes; until cookies become firm. Remove to wire racks and let cool.

Makes 3 dozen cookies.

Ricotta Cheese Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
¼ unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp blackberry preserves
2 eggs
2 cups flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350F.

In a small bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until fluffy; continue to beat in the preserves, then one egg at a time until all are incorporated fully.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, salt and baking soda; add the mixture from the small bowl and mix together well; add the ricotta cheese and mix in fully. The dough will be thick, so can easily be measured out by rounded tablespoons onto nonstick cookie sheets.

Bake for 15-17 minutes or until tops are golden brown; move cookies onto wire racks to cool.

Makes 4 dozen cookies.

The cookies have a mild sweetness at first, but intensify as eaten. However, a glaze can be spread onto the cookies and sprinkles added immediately before it sets.

Recipe for Glaze
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
3 Tbsp warm milk

Mix together until it becomes a spreadable consistency.

Makes enough to cover 4 dozen cookies.

Mary Cokenour

To measure or not to measure.

When working with a recipe, I like to first make it using particular ingredients, and see how it comes out. Then I try the dish again, but this time trying different ingredients; maybe chicken instead of beef, or peanut butter instead of vanilla. Usually I end up with a complete recipe that allows for this or that, depending on the mood of the person making the dish.

With baking, that is a little more difficult, mainly because baking is more of a precise science. With cooking, you can use measuring devices, or just your hands and eyes; that's the way I enjoy doing it. However, with baking, if you put too much or too little, you could end with a mess. For me, not being able to "eyeball" amounts sort of takes the adventure out of a recipe; but I would rather end up with a delicious dessert, so I bite the bullet and use measuring cups and spoons.

Also, when substituting ingredients in baked goods, you have to make sure that one can be equally measured out for another. The thickness and flavor of peanut butter won't equal the same measure called for when using vanilla extract; one is more solid, the other liquidy. So, don't be surprised if trial and error takes a major role when experimenting with ingredients.

One successful substitution I have found is to use ricotta cheese instead of mascarpone. Sure, you can always make a faux mascarpone (see recipe on Feb 8, 2011 blog post called "I don't miss the East coast, just the food"), but using whole milk ricotta will give you the texture you need, and measure out in just the correct portions. You'll understand what I mean by this when I tell you about a wonderful Italian dessert called Cannoli, and a pie that can be also made.

Cannoli

A single cannoli is called a cannolo, meaning “tube,” and this Sicilian dessert was created more than 1,000 years ago. It is a tube-shaped pastry, open-ended on each side, that is quickly fried, cooled and then filled with lightly sweetened ricotta, or mascarpone cheese. Bakers often add additions to cannoli filling like pieces of citron, tiny chocolate chips, or candied cherries at either end of the pastry. Less commonly pistachios may be chopped and used in cannoli filling. In Sicily, cannoli filling might be flavored with Marsala wine, vanilla extract or rosewater. In the US, vanilla extract is used most, but you can find the occasional Marsala wine flavored cannoli in very traditional Italian bakeries or restaurants. Whole cannoli are often decadently sprinkled with powdered sugar. The average size is 4 inches long by 1 inch wide, but they can be made larger or smaller, depending on whether they are being served as a whole dessert item (one average or large), or part of a buffet (smaller version).

Cannoli Pie
Ingredients:
4 cups ricotta or mascarpone cheese
1 ½ cups confectioner’s sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup roasted pistachio nuts
1/3 cup golden raisins or diced candied fruits
¼ cup semi-sweet chocolate mini-chips
1 ½ cups whipped cream
1 ( 9 oz) deep dish graham cracker or crushed chocolate cookie pie crust
¼ cup bittersweet chocolate shavings

Preparation:
In a large bowl, cream together the cheese, sugar and vanilla extract until smooth; stir in nuts, fruit and mini-chips.

Gently fold in the whipped cream; spoon mixture into pie crust, creating a mound. With the bottom of a metal spoon, quickly dab and pull up at the top of the filling to create peaks. Sprinkle the chocolate shavings over the top. Refrigerate overnight.

Makes 8 servings.

Mary Cokenour
September 15, 1996