Photo: Spinach Artichoke Calzones Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups part skim ricotta
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated or a few pinches ground
- A few grinds black pepper
- 1/2 cup (a couple of handfuls) grated Parmigiano, plus extra, for sprinkling
- 1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry
- 1 (15-ounce) can quartered artichoke hearts, drained and coarsely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2 (10-ounce) tubes refrigerated pizza dough
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella
- Garlic oil (1 or 2 cloves chopped and heated in 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil)
- 2 cups tomato sauce, marinara or pizza sauce, for dipping or Five Minute Spicy Marinara, recipe follows
Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Combine first 7 ingredients in a bowl. Roll each pizza dough out on a cookie sheet, and halve each cross-wise. Spread 1/2 cup mozzarella and up to 1/4 of filling on each rectangle. Work on just half of the surface of each rectangle of dough, then fold dough over top of filling and pinch edges firmly to seal. For a half-moon "pizza parlor" look to your calzones, mound filling into a half-moon shape, fold dough over top trim edges of dough to follow the rounded shape, then seal edges.
Tie strips of dough scraps in knots, brush with garlic oil and sprinkle with grated cheese. Bake knots with calzones.
If your dough tears, remove a little of the filling and repair. Repeat the process, spacing the calzones evenly on baking sheet. Bake the calzones for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown all over. Serve calzones with warm tomato or pizza sauce for dunking.
Cook's Note: Freeze any remaining filling in a small plastic container and use it to stuff a chicken breast on another day.
Five Minute Spicy Marinara:
- 2 tablespoons (two turns around the pan) extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic crushed
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 (32 ounce) can chunky style crushed tomatoes
- Salt and pepper
- 1 teaspoon Italian dried seasoning
- 1 handful Italian parsley leaves, chopped
Add olive oil to medium saucepan over moderate heat. Add garlic and crushed pepper to the heated olive oil; when pepper snaps and garlic sizzles, stir in crushed tomatoes. Season sauce with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning. Cook for five minutes and stir in parsley. Serve.
Yield: 4 servings
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By Chai-T
SoCal
on January 25, 2011
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A fun meal to make and to eat, although I did tweak the recipe to my own liking. I didn't add artichoke, but I added a 3/4 lbs. of spicy Italian sausage, fresh mushrooms, and a sprinkle of kosher salt. The flavor from the sausage added such a great flavor! I also decided to spread the dough with a little bit of sauce first before I added the filling, but still offered the rest of the sauce for dipping. Just for presentation, I topped the Calzones with a little bit of the filling before baking, and they came out so nice, and very presentable. I will make these again, but I think I will make my own pizza dough from scratch next time. I had used the Pillsbury pizza dough (as it was the only brand in the market and it came out too much like biscuit "bread" instead of like a crust.
someone had mentioned here that this meal was "easy on the pocket" although I beg to differ. But I'm not here to talk about the price of the meal, but how delicious it was!
By dinska
Arlington Heigh...
on December 23, 2010
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I found that it really didnt need more spice to liven it up, it just needed a tad more mozzarella to make it more flavorful and of course more stretchy. =
By lschrau2_7916811
Lisle, IL
on January 15, 2009
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This meal was awesome and unlike anything I've ever made before. The calzones turned out very well and everyone in my family enjoyed them. The spinach-artichoke filling was pretty mild...I really liked it, but it probably would have been better with more salt or some sauteed onions. I also thought that adding some chicken to the recipe with perhaps one of Rachael's pestos would make it fantastic. And definitely make the 5 minute spicy marinara to go along with it! An overall hit but next time I'm going to experiment with some tweaking. And I suggest making the filling ahead of time, it makes preparation a breeze!
Read all 33 reviews