Yesterday, in addition to my holiday goodie baking marathon [more on that later], I made my first dinner all on my own!! The only time I opened a recipe book was to get the right proportions for the pizza dough. The rest was born out of creativity and hunger.
The dough recipe I used was enough for 4 calzones - I did 3 & one had too much dough so, instead of a giant calzone with a small bit of filling, I made some sort of pie/galette/free form/folded pizza. ;)
This is a really simple recipe & should be treated as more of a guideline - use any vegetables, cheese or meat you have on hand. Get creative!
Also, although you can use store-bought pizza dough, I really recommend you give making your own a shot! Breads are one of my favorite things to make lately - they're simple, relaxing and very rewarding. Plan about 15 minutes initially to mix up the ingredients, about 2 hours of unattended rising time, and then another 20 minutes to roll out, fill & assemble.
Instructions & guidelines below!!
PIZZA DOUGH [Adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything]
This is enough dough for 4 calzones.
1 teaspoon instant or rapid rise yeast
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 to 1 1/4 cups water - slightly warm to activate the yeast is good, but not too hot!
2 tablespoons olive oil
Here's my unscientific, lazy way of making dough:
Put everything in a bowl, starting with just 1 cup of water. Mix.
At this point you'll have a shaggy, sticky, messy semi-cohesive lump of dough. Instead of adding more flour until it's dry, I start kneading - it will get less dry as you work it & adding more flour can make the dough too tough. If it's too dry, add more water, a tablespoon at a time.
This video gives you a good idea of how to take the dough from the sloppy stage, through kneading to the proofing [fancy name for rising/resting.]
Another video showing the kneading technique I use.
It's improbable that you'll over-knead by hand, so give it a good 10-15 minutes of work. By the end, you should have a smooth ball that isn't sticky & that holds it shape well.
Smooth a little olive oil over it, then put it in a bowl, covered with a towel to rest for an hour or more. It rises best & quickest in a warm spot, although I've let dough rise as long as 6 hours in a cool room & it's just fine. Basically you're just looking for it to double in size. If I want it to go quicker, I turn the oven on low & put the bowl on top of the stove. If it's summer, a warm deck works well to [just make sure bugs can't get in!]
FILLING
The ratios & amounts are all up to you - each calzone can hold about 1 cup of filling, so aim to have 4 cups when you're finished.
4 portobello mushroom caps
5 oz goat cheese
1/2 c shredded asiago
1/2 onion
5 cloves garlic [Joel really likes garlic!]
1/4 c olive oil
Heat the olive oil in a pan, then sauté the garlic & onion for about 5-10 minutes, until starting to brown.
Add the mushrooms and cook about 15 minutes, until reduced in size and darker in color - no need to cook them all the way, since you'll be baking them.
Remove from heat, stir in goat cheese and asiago.
ASSEMBLING
Preheat over to 350 degrees.
Remove the risen dough from the bowl, punching a few times to let the air out. Form into a log shape, then cut into 4 equal parts.
Sprinkle flour over the dough & the surface on which you'll rolling the dough out. Using a rolling pin, glass, naglene, etc, roll the dough into a large circle, about 8 inches across.
Put approximately 1 cup of filling off to one side. Fold the other side over so the edges match. Starting from one side, close the calzone by folding/rolling in the edges. Not need for this to be pretty, but just to keep everything from leaking out.
Repeat for all 4!
Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, bake for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees, or until the tops are golden brown.
[Full disclosure, this is a guess - our oven thermostat is broken & I just checked on them every 10 minutes.]
I stabbed ours with a fork a couple times to help them cool, then just cut them in half.
Enjoy!
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