This is not the first time we’ve made Calzones before, but it is the first time we’ve blogged about it. For anybody who doesn’t already know, Calzones are essentially a pizza folded in half. They’re totally rustic and…sinking your teeth into a Calzone hot out of the oven is pretty glorious. I’m imagining right now how amazing they’d be fresh from a wood-burning brick oven, like the restaurants in Italy, but that house project has not started yet. Hint hint!!
Whenever we make or order pizza we always have to say half this and half that. Never a complete agreement in our family. Kara and Cliff like chopped garlic on their pizza, but I don’t, which is weird because I’d eat garlic on just about anything. Calzones are nice because you can personalize them any way you like. The day we made these we actually made 3 different combinations. Cliff’s had everything, Kara’s had mushrooms only and mine had everything except mushrooms. Have I mentioned before that I despise mushrooms? Yuck!
There are plenty of ways to simplify this recipe. You can buy pizza dough, you can buy pizza sauce, you can buy pre-shredded cheese. Do what’s right for you! Kara wanted to make a homemade pizza sauce, so she did a little of this and a little of that and came up with a really tasty pizza sauce. Check back tomorrow for her recipe. There are days when we want shortcuts and days when we want everything homemade. This day happened to be a ‘from scratch’ kind of day, and the from scratch Veggie Calzone was totally delicious. And lucky for us (not so lucky for my butt/thighs), we saved half the dough for future Calzones. 
Here’s what you’ll need. We forgot to picture an egg for the egg wash
Dice the veggies, use your favorites
Separate the dough into equal pieces then roll them into 4-inch rounds
to one side, add the sauce and the veggies
Sprinkle with LOTS of cheese!
Fold the empty half over to make half moons, then brush lightly with egg wash
Use a fork to crimp the edges closed
Bake 20-25 minutes, until crispy and golden brown.
Veggie Calzones
Ingredients
- 1 batch pizza dough (we used this recipe)
- 2 pizza sauce (recipe posts tomorrow)
- 4 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
- 3 cup fresh veggies, diced (we used mushroom, green pepper, onion & baby spinach)
- egg wash (1 egg whisked together with 1-2 tablespoons water)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Divide the dough into 6 equal size pieces. Working with one ball of dough at a time, use a rolling pin to roll the dough into 4 inch rounds, about 1/4 inch thick.
- To one side of the dough round, add about 4 tablespoons of pizza sauce, a handful of veggies and plenty of cheese. Add enough veggies to give it substance, but not so much that you can’t close it!
- Transfer the Calzones to a baking sheet and brush the tops lightly with egg wash. This will help them become golden while baking. Before popping them in the oven, use a fork to crimp all along the sealed edges, to secure the Calzone shut.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until crisp and golden brown.