Every Friday night is pizza night at our house. Sometimes I make it from scratch, sometimes I order it...either way I like not having to think about what to make for dinner. Although my family loves this tradition, every once in a while I get the itch to try something a little different. When I found the recipe for these calzones, I decided they were pizza-like enough to count for our tradition, but with a fun new twist that would add a little pizazz to our Friday night fare.
I normally make the crust for this type of dish from scratch, but I've never had much success getting the dough the right thickness for calzones before, so I stuck with the tubes of pizza dough from the refrigerated section to save my sanity. The kids grumbled a little at first about it not being their normal pizza, but seemed to have no problem eating them all anyway.
The ingredients:
2 cups low-moisture part-skim ricotta cheese1/4 tsp. nutmeg
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 package (10-oz) frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry
1 can (15-oz) quartered artichoke hearts in water, drained and coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 -3 tubes prepared , refrigerated pizza dough (10-oz. each) **the recipe says "2", but I had enough filling to use 3 whole tubes**
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
2 cups tomato, marinara or pizza sauce, warmed, for dipping
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine ricotta, nutmeg, black pepper, parmesan cheese, spinach, artichoke hearts, and garlic in a bowl to make the filling.
Roll out both tubes of pizza dough out on 2 separate nonstick cookie sheets (I ended up with enough filling for 3 tubes of dough) and cut each dough into fourths.
Spread each fourth with mozzarella cheese and mound filling over half of each rectangle, then fold dough over top of filling; pinch edges to firmly seal. If the dough tears, remove a little filling and repair.
Repeat process with each of the remaining calzones, spacing them evenly on a baking sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm with tomato or pizza sauce for dunking. Add a tossed salad and you've got a complete meal! The recipe claims it only makes 4 servings, but I ended up with 12 small calzones, which was probably more like 6 servings.
Enjoy!
