T.G.I.F. That famous saying you hear from so many people every week. Thank goodness it’s Friday!! For most, that means that it is the weekend and hopefully a time where you get to unwind, relax and have a good time with family & friends. Hopefully you get to enjoy some good food and maybe some drinks with your family & friends. Like so many others, Friday nights in our house usually means pizza night and I love to make homemade pizzas. When I need a night off from the kitchen we usually order out from our local pizza shop.
This week I decided I wanted to try something different, something other than pizza. Don’t get me wrong, we love pizza and could probably eat it just about any time of the week. But instead, we decided to make Calzones. It is still in line with having a Pizza night. You make a calzone with pizza dough and pizza sauce and many of the same toppings. For a Calzone, it gets filled with lots of yummy fillings like sausage, steak, chicken or even pepperoni and maybe some veggies. You then add cheese and sauce, wrap up the dough, bake it until it gets nice and golden brown on the outside and hot and bubbly on the inside. I love to slice the Calzones and dip them in some pizza sauce. It is also fun to make personal size Calzones so everyone gets their own and can fill them with what they like.
This weekend we decided to make 2 different types of Calzones. We created a Cheese Steak Calzone that was filled with sauteed peppers, onions, mushrooms and our favorite these days, some Pepperoncini peppers. If you haven’t tried Pepperoncini peppers I would encourage you to try them. They are slightly sweet but tangy and they give any recipe just the right amount of a kick. They go perfect with cheese steak.
Our second one we created was a Sausage & Cheese Calzone which was equally as delicious. It was filled with Italian Sausage (mild) and a mixture of Ricotta and Mozzarella cheeses with some Italian seasonings. We even had some of the fillings leftover and made lunch with them by reheating the steak with the peppers and onions and melting mozzarella cheese on it. We then filled some tortilla wraps. So delicious!
Do you have a favorite Calzone? or have any weekly traditions in your house, like pizza night? Feel free to share and if you would like to request anything in particular for me to make I would love to hear from you.
Mangia! Enjoy!
Cheese Steak Calzone
Makes approx. 4 Calzones
Ingredients
1 lb., Steak, Beef Top Round Steak, Chipped
1 Red Pepper, seeded & juilenned
1 Onion, cut into thin slices
6 Mushrooms, sliced *(used Baby Bella mushrooms a.k.a. cremini)
5 small, Pepperoncini Peppers, sliced or chopped
S&P
Few dashes, Worcestershire Sauce
1/3 Cup, Beef Broth
2 Cups, Mozzarella Cheese, shredded
Pizza Dough *store bought or homemade (recipe to follow for homemade)
1 Can, Pizza Sauce
Instructions
Cheese Steak Calzone w/Peppers, Onions & Mushrooms
Preheat oven to 450 Degrees. Line a baking sheet with either a Silpat sheet or parchment paper. In this recipe, I used my Silpat sheet and it worked great.
Peppers & Onions for Calzone
On the stove, over medium high heat, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the onions, red pepper, pepperoncini peppers and mushrooms. Saute for about 5 minutes and once the onions start to become translucsent and the mushrooms start to brown up a bit add the S&P, Worcestershire sauce and beef broth and stir well. Turn heat to low and simmer until peppers are nice and tender.
Beef Top Round Steak-Chipped & sliced for Calzone
In a separate saute pan, cook the steak. Season with S&P, few dashes of Worcestershire sauce. As soon the meat is no longer pink remove from the heat.
Making Cheese Steak Calzone
Roll out the dough. I was able to make 4 calzones from 1 ball of pizza dough. Place about 1 cup of steak and 1 cup of onions/peppers into the center of the pizza dough. Add about 3-4 tablespoons of pizza sauce on top and a large handful of the mozzarella cheese. Fold the dough over until it reaches the other end. Pinch ends together and if it doesn’t quite meet the other end just fold the bottom layer up and over the top layer of dough. Crimp the edges with your fingers (like you would a pie dough). Brush the outside of the dough with melted butter or olive oil (I used Olive oil in this recipe). Bake in the oven for 15 minutes then turn your baking sheet completely around and bake for another 15 minutes or until nice and golden brown on the outside of the calzone.
Remove from oven and serve with some of the sauce. Garnish with some fresh parsley or basil leaves.
Mangia! Enjoy!
Sausage Calzone:
To make a Sausage Calzone:
- 3/4 lb-1 lb., Italian Sausage, casing removed
- 1 1/4 Cups, Mozzarella Cheese, shredded
- 1/3 Cup, Ricotta Cheese, Whole Milk
- 1 Teaspoon, Garlic Powder
- 1 Teaspoon, Onion Powder
- 1/2 Teaspoon, Italian Seasoning
Sausage & Cheese Calzone
On the stove, over high heat, add the sausage to a saute pan with a drizzle of olive oil. Break up the sausage into little pieces while cooking it. Once cooked, remove from heat and drain off any grease/fate. Roll out dough, place the sausage in center of dough then top with your cheese mixture and about 2-4 tablespoons of the sauce. Sealing and cooking the calzone is the same as above.
You can add any fillings you like to your Calzones.
Click here to get my pizza dough recipe: Pizza Dough recipe