Calzone To Enjoy

A comfort food for Sweetie and me is pizza, including the hand-pie version, calzone. Last night I made some for our dinner. We also had a nice big green salad.

For the calzone, I defrosted the last of the pizza dough that I had in the freezer. I used THIS recipe to make the dough in the summer, used some of it then and froze the dough in portions just enough for two personal pizzas.

I cut the dough into two pieces, about 145 grams each, and then rolled them out, one at a time on a lightly floured board.

The day before I used my smaller slow cooker to make caramelized onions (thinly slice a peeled onion, cut in half, and toss with about a tablespoon of olive oil. Put into a slow cooker and cook on high for 4-5 hours until caramelized). All the rest of the ingredients were prepared just before I filled the calzone. 

After they were filled and sealed, I let them sit for about an hour to get a bit more puffy and preheated the oven to 475 degrees F. I forgot to also preheat a pizza stone, but, as it turned out, I didn't need it. The crust was pretty thin and cooked very well on the pizza pan set on the oven rack.

These were delicious! Mine had non-dairy ricotta, mixed with chopped Italian parsley, spices like oregano and basil, pepper, and some garlic. On top of that were thinly sliced fresh tomato, salami, and pepperoni. Sweetie had the ricotta mixture, the caramelized onions (I forgot to put them on mine!), some grated Parmesan, the tomatoes, salami and pepperoni, then some mozzarella cheese.

Once the oven was fully heated, I brushed a bit of soy milk on the top dough, cut a couple of steam holes, and put the loaded pizza pan into the oven.

The fragrance was wonderful after about 12 minutes! Baked crust, salami and pepperoni were the dominant notes. We ate every bite!

Calzone

makes two

about 300 grams pizza dough
1/2 cup ricotta cheese (I used Kite Hill non-dairy ricotta)
2 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley
1/4 teaspoon each oregano and basil, dried
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup caramelized onion
1 medium fresh tomato, ripe, thinly sliced, stem end removed
12-14 slices salami
10-12 sliced pepperoni
optional: Parmesan cheese (about 1 tablespoon) and mozzarella cheese (about 2-4 slices)

On a lightly floured board, divide the dough into two pieces, each about 150 grams.

Roll out one piece of the dough into a circle, approximately 8" in diameter.

In a small bowl mix together the ricotta cheese, Italian parsley, dried oregano and basil, garlic and pepper.

Spread half the ricotta mixture on half of the dough circle, leaving 1.5-2 inches around the edges free of ricotta. Spread half the onions over the ricotta. Top with half of the tomato slices (about 2-2.5), half the salami slices and half the pepperoni slices. If using, top with the mozzarella and sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese.

Fold the half of the dough with no ingredients over the half the dough circle with ingredients, edges meeting. Press down edges. Starting at one end, fold over the edge, then fold that over next to it, and continue until whole half-circle has been folded to seal. Place calzone on a greased 12-inch pizza pan.

Prepare the second calzone just as you did the first. Place it on the other side of the pizza pan. Lightly cover with oiled plastic wrap and sit in a draft-free warm place for an hour.

About 15 minutes before the hour is up, preheat the oven to 475 degrees F. When oven is hot, remove the plastic wrap from the calzone, brush lightly with milk or soy milk using a pastry brush, and score the top at a diagonal in two places on each calzone.

Bake in preheated oven for about 12-15 minutes. Calzone will have a browned crust, and the juices from the meat and tomatoes will be seeping through the slash on the top. Serve at once, after using a pizza cutter to cut each calzone into four pieces.

Asparagus Season

We have gone to daylight savings time and the calendar said that this past Monday was the first day of spring, but many days have still been chilly and last night the temperature was in the upper 30s, so winter is having trouble letting go. Friday is supposed to bring a big storm with a lot of rain and maybe some thunder and lightning. Even so, things keep blooming. The plum trees are finished with their flowers and are sending out lots of lovely light green leaves. The pear trees are in bloom right now and the apples are in the bud stage, ready to bust out all over this weekend if it warms up a bit. This afternoon I re-potted some of the squash seedlings into larger pots since they were getting too big for the tiny cells of the seed starting trays. The tomatoes will need to be re-potted soon. Spring is all around.

One of the joys of spring are the fresh asparagus that show up in every market, often at a reasonable price. I love them just steamed lightly, but they are great grilled with just a mist of olive oil to keep them from sticking, in an omelet, added to a stir fry, as part of a pasta dish, with Parmesan cheese and ricotta, and even as the star of a yummy bread.

Today I made a flatbread with halved asparagus spears that I cut into 2-inch long pieces. First down on the parchment was a sourdough pizza dough made with Italian 00 flour instead of all-purpose flour. It is very easy to work with, stretches thin for a nice crust, and tastes great, too. On top of that I put some almond milk ricotta cheese (thank you T-Rose for helping me find it at Community Market), very thin slivers of red onion, and the prepared asparagus. A drizzle of olive oil finished it up, ready for baking in a hot oven. Since Sweetie and I prefer different amounts of salt and pepper, we added it at the table. I used my baking stone, well pre-heated, and slid the parchment paper holding the flatbread right onto the stone. You get a really nice bottom crust that way.

The asparagus flatbread went really well with a green salad that had fresh orange segments and avocado, dressed with a balsamic vinaigrette. What did you have tonight?

Pizza or Calzone...or Both

One of the great things about having pizza dough in the freezer is that you can make a quick and creative meal without a whole lot of trouble. Well, quick once the dough has had a chance to thaw and warm up a bit. Yesterday I knew that I would want pizza for dinner, so I too a couple of portions out of the freezer and they thawed while I did some weeding and stained glass work and read a little more of a book I'm enjoying. The author? Louise Penny, a Canadian writer. If you haven't read any of her work yet, start with Still Life. You can blame me when you fall in love with a little village and want to move there, even though an amazing number of murders happen there for such a small population. Perhaps just visiting is fine.

I made the pizza dough last week when I decided to make calzone, mostly to use up some pasta sauce I'd made a couple of days before. When there are only two of you dining and you were raised to cook for at least eight people, leftovers are a way of life. A calzone is really just a pizza folded over on itself before baking. I like mine with ricotta cheese on the bottom, layers of sauce and meat or veggies, and plenty of cheese.

I made two kinds. One had a filling of the ricotta, some roasted butternut squash,a little bacon, some Italian parsley, and garlic, plus shredded mozzarella and grated Parmesan. The second one had less ricotta, the tomato rich pasta sauce, slices of pepperoni, more mozzarella and Parmesan. Both were delicious in their own way.

For yesterday's pizza I was using up some leftover chicken thigh meat. That's the photo at the top of the post. On went the ricotta, the chicken, some local bacon, crumbled, some caramelized onion, Italian parsley, mozzarella and Parmesan. It was tastiest when cooled just a bit and was a mellow flavor combo, smokey with the bacon, but if you like more flavor, add some hot sauce.

The nice thing about both these is that you hand form the dough, stretching it gently to get a nice thin crust, thicker around the edges. If the dough fights you when you are stretching it. Just let it sit a few minutes and try again. Sometimes the gluten needs a brief rest before it cooperates.

In loading the pizza or calzone, keep the toppings light in weight. When I knew I was going to use fairly heavy pasta sauce, I went very light on the ricotta for the second calzone. When I made the chicken pizzas, I went light on the chicken. One thigh was more than enough for two four-slice pizzas.

The final tip is to use a pizza stone, if at all possible, in the oven and to preheat the oven so that it is really hot when you put the pizza in. I found for my oven that baking each one on the stone, then transferring it to the rack to finish baking was just the thing so that the crust was crispy and the fillings fully heated through.

I still have two more bags of dough in the freezer. Looking forward to the next great pizza/calzone meal.

BASIC PIZZA DOUGH ~ To Use for Calzone or Pizza
Original recipe for the dough taken from “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart.
Makes six pizza (8-10 inch) crusts or six 4-slice calzone

Ingredients: 4 1/2 Cups (20 1/4 ounces/607.5 g) Unbleached high-gluten (%14) bread flour or all purpose flour, chilled
1 3/4 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Instant yeast
1/4 Cup (2 ounces/60g) Olive oil or vegetable oil (both optional, but it’s better with)
1 3/4 Cups (14 ounces/420g or 420ml) Water, ice cold (40° F/4.5° C)
1 Tb sugar
Semolina/durum flour or cornmeal for dusting

 DAY ONE Method: 1. Mix together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a big bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer).

2. Add the oil, sugar and cold water and mix well (with the help of a large wooden spoon or with the paddle attachment, on low speed) in order to form a sticky ball of dough. On a clean surface, knead for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are homogeneously distributed. If it is too wet, add a little flour (not too much, though) and if it is too dry add 1 or 2 teaspoons extra water. NOTE: If you are using an electric mixer, switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for the same amount of time. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too wet, sprinkle in a little more flour, so that it clears the sides. If, on the contrary, it clears the bottom of the bowl, dribble in a teaspoon or two of cold water. The finished dough should be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky, and register 50°-55° F/10°-13° C.

3. Flour a work surface or counter. Line a jelly pan with baking paper/parchment. Lightly oil the paper.

4. With the help of a metal or plastic dough scraper, cut the dough into 6 pieces. NOTE: To avoid the dough from sticking to the scraper, dip the scraper into water between cuts.

5. Sprinkle some flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Gently round each piece into a ball. NOTE: If the dough sticks to your hands, then dip your hands into the flour again.

6. Transfer the dough balls to the lined jelly pan and mist them generously with spray oil. Slip the pan into plastic bag or enclose in plastic food wrap. 7. Put the pan into the refrigerator and let the dough rest overnight or for up to thee days. NOTE: You can store the dough balls in a zippered freezer bag if you want to save some of the dough for any future baking. In that case, pour some oil (a few tablespoons only) in a medium bowl and dip each dough ball into the oil, so that it is completely covered in oil. Then put each ball into a separate bag. Store the bags in the freezer for no longer than 3 months. The day before you plan to make calzone or pizzas, remember to transfer the dough balls from the freezer to the refrigerator, or you can thaw the dough on the counter for about 3-4 hours before you bake.

DAY TWO
8. On the day you plan to eat calzone, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator. Dust the counter with flour and spray lightly with oil. Place the dough balls on a floured surface and sprinkle them with flour. Dust your hands with flour and delicately press the dough into disks about 1/2 inch/1.3 cm thick and 5 inches/12.7 cm in diameter. Sprinkle with flour and mist with oil. Loosely cover the dough rounds with plastic wrap and then allow to rest for 2 hours.

9. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone on the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven as hot as possible (500° F/260° C). NOTE: If you do not have a baking stone, then use the back of a jelly pan. Do not preheat the pan. Note: In case you would be having trouble rolling the dough or if the dough never wants to expand and always springs back, let it rest for approximately 5-20 minutes in order for the gluten to relax fully,then try again.

On a lightly floured surface roll each dough ball into a circle about 8 or 9 inches in diameter. Place on a sheet of baking parchment paper.
Fill as desired. To assemble the calzone, roll out as described above and place on pieces of baking parchment.

If making as I described at the top of post, spread about 1 - 2 tablespoons of ricotta on half of the dough circle. Top with other ingredients, remembering to keep filling light.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Fold the plain half of the dough over the filled half. Run a finger that you have dipped in water around the edge of the filled section and press the top dough to seal. Use the tines of a fork to press all around the edge to seal further. If desired, glaze the dough with some of the beaten egg and sprinkle with additional Parmesan cheese.

Set aside and make the other five calzone. If there are dough balls left, save for pizza or more calzone. They can be frozen to be used later, too.

Once all the calzone have been filled, check to make sure that the pre-heated oven is hot. If you are using a baking stone, slide the calzone, still on its parchment onto the stone and bake until the dough is golden brown. Repeat with each of the other calzone. Let cool a couple of minutes, then remove from the paper to a cutting board and cut each into four pieces. Serve at once.

For pizza, follow the same steps, but fill the whole shell and don't fold over or seal.

Pizza Dough with Italian Flour

Since I have an excellent scale for weighing food ingredients, I love it when baking recipes give dry ingredients by weight. It is much more precise than cups and tablespoons and that usually makes the finished product better. It is also easy, if you have a scale that tares back to O to weight the bowl, go to zero, weigh the first ingredient in the bowl, go to zero, weight the next ingredient right on top of the first, in the bowl, and so on. Once you are done, all the ingredients are exactly what is called for and all are in the bowl, ready for the rest of the recipe.

This recipe is one I found in the food section of our local newspaper, the Press Democrat. The dough makes two 12-inch pizzas and is ready to work with in about 4-5 hours, so pizza can be on the table in less than 5.5 hours. You can start the dough before work and stash it in the fridge until you get home, set it out at room temp. to warm up, then make the pizza, with the pies being ready to eat about an hour after you took the dough out of the fridge. Excellent! It uses Italian OO flour, a very fine wheat flour. I think that gave the crust just a bit of extra chewiness. It is tasty crust, too.

For toppings I went with a jarred tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella sliced and torn into pieces, a scatter of shredded mozzarella, a sprinkle of dried oregano and basil and garlic powder, some crumbled bacon and a sprinkle of olive oil, then grated Parmesan. It was delicious and cheesy. For the second pizza I spread on some pesto, added crumbled bacon, shredded and fresh mozzarella, a spritz of olive oil and some grated Parmesan. Sweetie really like this one! The bacon was used because the pepperoni slices I thought were in the deli drawer turned out to be gone. Still, bacon is good on anything and it was true here, too.

This meal was completed with a very large serving of a mixed kale, broccoli slaw, shaved Brussels sprouts and radicchio salad with poppy seed dressing, pumpkin seeds and dried cranberries. Strangely enough, it went well together. Such is the menu when some of the kitchen cabinets are being torn out. The dough was made the day before and safely stashed in the fridge. Even though the cabinet and counter to the left of the stove was gone by dinnertime, we still had the stove, so pizza was a great choice. I did shape the dough into smaller shapes than 12-inches in diameter, so next time I'll work a little harder at getting the shape larger and the crust thinner, but otherwise this was great pizza!

Have gotten to the fun time of picking out the wall paint. So far a light blue green seems to be the favorite choice. It has gray in it too. Very soft and comforting somehow. Funny how color can evoke so many emotions. Should be interesting to see what we end up with. I'll keep you posted.

To a faithful reader: Deb, hope you did something wonderful with the eggs. Our neighbor is so glad that you have them.

Pizza Dough from Roberta's in Brooklyn

Created by Tony Calzone and his team

Makes two 12-inch pizzas

153 grams OO flour (about 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon)
153 grams all-purpose flour (about 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon and 2 teaspoons)
8 grams fine sea salt (about 1 teaspoon)
2 grams active dry yeast (3/4 teaspoon)
4 grams extra-virgin olive oil (1 teaspoon)
1 cup lukewarm water

In a large mixing bowl, combine flours and salt.

In a small mixing bowl stir together 200 milliliters (about 1 cup) lukewarm tap water, the yeast and the olive oil, then pour the mixture into the flour mixture. (I put the active dry yeast into the water, let it sit 5 minutes to hydrate, then added the olive oil, whisked and added the mix to the flour mixture.)

Knead with your hands until well combined, approximately 3 minutes. Let the mixture rest for 15 minutes.

Knead the rested dough on a lightly floured surface for 3 minutes. Cut into 2 equal pieces and shape each into a ball. Place on a heavily floured surface, cover with a dampened cloth, and let rest and rise for 3-4 hours at room temperature or for 8-24 hours in the fridge. (If you refrigerate the dough, let it rest at room temperature for 30 - 45 minutes before you begin to shape it for pizza.)

To make pizza, place each dough ball on a heavily floured surface and use your fingers to stretch it, then your hands to shape it into rounds or squares. Top and bake.

Note: Measurements for dry ingredients are given by weight for greater accuracy. The equivalent  measurements by volume are approximate.