a 5(ish) ingredient meal

Happy Monday!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend 🙂  We certainly enjoyed Isla’s first Easter and she got a chance to be outside and enjoy the beautiful weather.  She’s really unsure of grass, so far, but just loves being outside and taking in her surroundings.  We sometimes forget that EVERYthing is new to her!  The mail truck?  What’s that?  A bird flying by?  That doesn’t happen inside our house… Wind?  That feels weird on my face!  It’s so funny to see her reaction to everything – ahhh, the beauty of seeing the world through the eyes of a baby.

Anyhoo… Today I wanted to share with you a SUPER easy (and only about 5 ingredient) meal!  This can be used to switch up pizza night in your house, or as an appetizer when entertaining. I made this a couple weekends ago when we were entertaining, so I used it as a “finger-food” type appetizer and sliced it into smaller portions… but it was so delicious, I would totally eat it as a meal for myself.  Calzones – or as I like to think of it, pizza in a pocket!  Now, I’m sure many of you now how to make calzones, so take this as a refresher or re-inspiration if you do.  But for those of you who don’t, let me walk you through how easy it is.  Also – bear in mind, you don’t have to use the same (simple) ingredients I did.  You can add whatever you’d like on a pizza typically, or even switch it up and make it with something different.  My mom made these with ham and cheese and they turned out awesome.  So that’d be especially easy if you happened to have ham for Easter yesterday.

Here are the ingredients:

• 1 package of pizza dough (fridge section of grocery store)
• pizza sauce
• cheese
• pepperoni (or whatever pizza toppings)
• 2 tbsp butter or olive oil
  • (optional) seasonings
    • I used 1/4 tsp oregano, 1/8 tsp garlic powder, & 1/8 tsp black pepper
  • (optional) parmesan cheese to add into pizza sauce or top calzone with

 

(Preheat oven to 400 degrees)

I start by rolling the pizza dough out on a floured surface (so the dough doesn’t stick) and I had a little flour to my rolling pin to do so.  If you don’t have a rolling pin, you could also just flatten it out by hand – or use a clean glass to help you shape it out to a circle.

I then melt the butter and add the oregano, garlic powder, and pepper to it.  You can add whatever italian seasonings you prefer or have on hand (or just substitute olive oil or plain butter if you don’t like a lot of seasonings).

Cut the dough in half and use a bit of the butter and seasoning mixture on the inside corner of the dough (this will help the dough seal).  See photos below. Then add cheese and your toppings.  Add more cheese than you think!  It needs a lot to stand up to the dough.  I put the pepperoni on the outside edge so I could roll it towards the center without all of the cheese and pepperoni falling out.  (You’ll want to do the same with any additional toppings you might add).   You want to tuck and fold it over so you have a little room on the edges to seal it.  (You will note that my pepperoni is kind of dark in color, that’s because I cooked it on it’s own in the oven for a couple of minutes before hand to make it crispy.  I like food crispy, so I took that extra step.  No need to do that, it’ll turn out just as delicious without doing so).

Once you’ve rolled both of the calzones, take a fork and pinch the edges together – making sure there aren’t any holes that the cheese/toppings could fall out of.  I also put a couple little cuts in the top of the calzone just to let the heat and steam release so it doesn’t explode 🙂

I then put my calzones on a cooling rack on top of a baking sheet.  This helps the calzone cook all around, instead of getting too browned on the bottom.  I use the remainder of my butter and seasoning mixture and coat the calzone.  (I threw an little bit of parmesan cheese on top of the calzones too, just cuz I can’t help myself with more cheese).  I put them in the oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

During this time, I heat up or make a pizza sauce (usually adding some parmesan cheese) so it’s ready to go when the calzones come out.  After the 20 minutes, flip over the calzone (which is why it has weird indentations from the cooling rack on the bottom) and cook for another 5 minutes.  And it is good to go!

See! Look how pretty (and EASY) these bad boys are!  So enjoy a whole one (or two) to yourself, or cut into pieces to eat as an appetizer:)  Bon Appetit!