Pizzeria Classic: Easy Calzone

It's been a while since I've had pizza, so I knew I had to change that immediately. I didn't feel like buying all the ingredients for a homemade dough, so I tossed a bag of Trader Joe's whole wheat dough into my shopping bag and decided to crack it open tonight. I thought of a bunch of ideas (some of which you'll be seeing in the near future) but wanted something a little different. I figure I could either make personal pizzas, one large pizza, or something else entirely. So, I divided the dough into fours and went with the last option. Tonight called for something I haven't eaten in years, since I devoured an extremely large, greasy, pepperoni filled one from Pizza Hut. Tonight called for a calzone.


Spinach ricotta and pesto calzone
Ingredients
- 1/4 ball of whole wheat dough (homemade or bought)
- 1-2 tbsp herb almond pesto (recipe to follow)
- 1/3 cup spinach ricotta mixture (recipe to follow)
- 1/2 tsp olive oil
- Pinch of oregano + basil + red pepper flake, for the top

Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425.
- Roll out dough into a thin round either using your hands, a rolling pin, or in my case, a plastic cup.
- Layer a tablespoon (or more if you'd like!) of pesto evenly across the entire round.
- Place the spinach ricotta mixture on one half of the dough. Dip your finger in water and wet the edges. Fold the empty half of the dough over the other half, and using a fork, seal the edges. Make sure to poke holes on the top to let steam escape. Brush the top with olive oil and add seasoning.
- Bake for 10 minutes, allow to cool, plunge into some marinara and mangia!

The uncooked calzone should look like this beauty:



I think pesto is beautiful. I'm weird, I know.

Herb almond pesto
Ingredients
- 1 cup basil
- 1 cup parsley
- Heaping 1/3 cup almonds, toasted
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- S&P, to taste

Instructions
- Add all ingredients aside from oil in a food processor. Turn on low and slowly add olive oil until sauce reaches your desired consistency. Easy!

For the ricotta, I used the recipe from the PPK but didn't press my tofu, omitted the basil and added an unmeasured amount of lightly steamed baby spinach. It was perfect.




This was out of control good. When it bakes it becomes crispy and golden and the kitchen smells vaguely like pesto. The ricotta mixture was moist so it was bubbly and had a texture EXACTLY like real ricotta. I definitely recommend not pressing the tofu because the moisture works really well here. The calzone didn't fall apart at all, and if the tofu was pressed then I think it would have been too dry.




Pizza Hut, eat your heart out.