I feel like a bad blogger. I made these forever ago, and have not shared them with you yet. Do you want to know the reason why? I didn’t want to type out the instructions. Yeah I know, bad blogger. My being lazy shouldn’t get in the way of sharing great food with you. I promise, I will be better!
I think the whole country has had strange weather this year. We have been in the 70′s and 80′s for almost the last month. But yesterday, it went back to 45 and windy. Just when I thought I could put away all the hats and gloves, it is time to use them again. So I guess we are back to comfort food. And really, what is more comforting than dough, cheese, and sauce?
I remember as a kid, calzones were a special treat. We would go to my parents friends house for the weekend, and they were always on the menu. The husband of the family we went to visit used to work for Sbarro, so he had their recipe. But it was the huge recipe for the store. You know, 50 pounds of flour, 8 gallons of water etc. I am sure they had a great time scaling that back to 8 calzones! I am not sure if that recipe is still floating around, so I went to my Cook’s Illustrated cookbook. True to form, they did not disappoint! Just as good as I remember from a kid, can’t wait to make them again and change up the filling.
Calzones
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated
Dough
4 cups (22 oz) bread flour
2 1/2 tsp rapid rise yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbls olive oil
1 1/2 cups, plus 1 Tbls water (105 degrees)
Filling
1/2 pound Italian Sausage
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
2 cups ricotta
2 cups mozzarella cheese
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 egg yolk
1 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
For the Dough:
Using a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combined flour, yeast and salt. Turn speed to medium-low, add olive oil. Then gradually mix in the water. Mix until it forms a smooth and elastic dough, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a large oiled bowl. Cover and let rise until doubled in size, 1 1/2 – 2 hours.
For the Filling:
Cook the sausage in a skillet over high heat, breaking it apart. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until no longer pink. Add the minced garlic and red pepper flakes. Cook for another minute, or until fragrant. Transfer sausage to a plate lined with paper towel to drain. In a large bowl mix ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan, egg yolk, oregano, salt and pepper. Fold in the sausage mixture. Put in fridge until needed.
Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Transfer dough to counter. Divide dough in half, then cut each half into thirds. You should have 6 equal portions of dough. Shape each portion into a loose ball. Place on a lined baking sheet. Cover, and let rest for 15-30 minutes.
On a lightly floured surface roll out each ball of dough into a 9 inch circle. Spread about 1/2 cup of filling into the bottom half of each round, leaving a 1 inch border. Fold the top half over the filling, and press the edges to seal. Cut a few slits into the top of the dough. Brush the tops with olive oil, and sprinkle with kosher salt. Place on a baking sheet, and bake until golden brown, about 12 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving. Serve with pizza sauce for dipping.
See those instructions are long! But it is so worth it!
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I haven’t thought of sbarro in years! Crazy. These look insanely perfect!
I hope we don’t get cold wave over here..I am enjoying way to much:))
Your Calzone look absolutely stunning, Erin! I love your recipe!!!
Mmmm, I love calzones
oh yum! i love calzones + yours look just awesome. i’m with rachel – i haven’t thought of sbarro in years but used to love that place growing up!
I used to love sbarro calzones! The spinach one used to be my favorite, these look so good, now I totally have a craving for some calzone goodness!
I could be descriptive in my comment, but I’ll just say this:
I just added this to the rotation for next week’s dinner. YUM!
These look delicious! I always buy pre-made dough, but it sounds like you have a pretty good recipe here. And they look great too, mine never come out looking this pretty!
I love calzones! I prefer mine loaded with veggies but these are just so pretty. Nicely done Erin!
it wasn’t so bad, the instructions…you made a great calzone – it’s perfect!
Your calzone is perfect, nice golden brown crust…yumm!! Your filling sounds pretty darn good to me…I love sausage & the mix of cheeses. Great recipe!
Erin, these look SO good. I’ve never even thought of making a calzone at home before. beautiful pictures too, looks like it should be a in a magazine
LOL!! That happens to me sometimes too. Then I go back to write my post and can’t even remember what the heck or how much of what I used
But so glad these finally made it to the blog because they look incredible!
If it makes you feel any better, I have a cake from the holiday season that I have not yet posted. How’s that for behind? I LOVE calzones–these look delicious!
I used to make these for my kids, they loved them!
i am totally craving Calzones now. Putting these on my must make list.
You are not a bad blogger but I’m so glad you shared them. My husband loves calzones. These look scrumptious!
LOL… I am a bad blogger too sometimes. I totally forget about dishes and then I also forget what I put into them so I have to make them again.
This looks great!! My kids would love little calzones just with what they like in a pizza. PS.. Our weather is strange too… freezing morning weather with frost…and I’m already growing my herbs on the deck. Urgh!
This calzone and its dough looks super delicious
Your filling sounds awesome too
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
I have had your page opened on my screen all day at work and haven’t had time to comment. I love the calzones, they look so good! This would sure to be a family hit!!!! Yum!!
Heh. I’ve been the same way with some recipes so I can identify. There are days that more than 2 directions seems overwhelming.
I’m glad you did though because these sound so good!
I’ve secretly wanted a calzone for weeks but haven’t allowed myself to get one. Homemade might be just the ticket.
—You naughty blogger.
That took lots of work to type all of that out, didn’t it?
I understand your pain…
but…this calzone looks Amaaaaazing. <3
I have to say…one of my least favorite parts about drafting a post is typing up the recipe–I understand.
That said, your calzones look great and I’m glad yo finally shared it with us. 
Haha
I know what you mean, Erin! I sometimes delay so long on writing the post that I forget which recipe I used! Thanks for sharing this recipe with us… the calzones look perfect and yummy! 
This looks so good. I love calzones, heck anything pizza related is true love for me.
It’s so funny that you mention about being a bad food blogger because you didn’t want to type out the directions because my post today t is exactly the same case. It was my St. Patrick’s Day meal and there was just so many components to write up about! Sometimes you think that if you just push it off, it’ll disappear. And then it’s been about a month and you still haven’t posted about it. Oh well.
Anyway, these calzones look great. I actually have frozen pizza dough sitting in my freezer so I’ll have to try this sometime this week!
Your calzone looks phenomenal (and I’ll bet it’s much better than Sbarro). I really enjoy Italian sausage, but I’ll also occasionally use eggplant as the ‘meat’. It’s like having an eggplant parm sub in a pizza roll.
Really lovely. They turned out so perfectly!
The weather has been weird, very back and forth…but these would be delicious any weather! I have not had a calzone in such a long time.
Delicious, I love a good calzone.
Oooo now THIS looks good!!! Yum!
Erin, these are BEAUTIFUL! I made a calzone once, so maybe I should give this recipe a try now that our weather is warming up in Texas!!
Calzones are so yummy and great to make for the fam as you can easily add different ingredients to each one! These look great!
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