EEE Cooks: Sausage Calzones (Recipe)

We start off by making the pizza dough. While the dough is kneading in the KitchenAid, we place the frozen sausage links on a microwave-safe plate, cover with wax paper, and defrost in the microwave for a few minutes. Then, while the pizza dough is rising, we pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees and prepare the filling for the calzones and the sauce to top. We have the pizza stone in the oven for the kids’ pizza, but we will place the filled calzones on a cookie sheet since we are not sure if they will ooze out any filling.

In a large sauté pan, we begin heating 1 teaspoon of oil over medium heat. We remove the casings from the defrosted sausages with scissors and then use the scissors to cut the sausages into small chunks. We add this to the oil and brown over medium-low heat, stirring often, for about 8 minutes. We remove the cooked sausage pieces to a paper-towel lined plate.

In the same pan, we add the garlic clove and stir for a minute or two. Using tongs, we rub paper towels into the pan to lift up as much oil as we can, but still leave the garlic clove. We discard the paper towels. We add the juice from the can of tomatoes and stir with a wooden spoon to pick up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Using our immersion blender, we puree the whole peeled tomatoes right in the can, being careful not to splash. We add the pureed tomatoes, a pinch of salt, a pinch of red pepper flakes, and the dried oregano to the pan and stir. We lower the heat, partially cover, and cook gently while we get the filling ready.

We add the ricotta to a large bowl. We cut the mozzarella into small pieces and add this to the ricotta along with the Locatelli. We add half the parsley, a little salt, and some freshly ground black pepper and stir well. We taste for seasoning – it is delicious. We add the rest of the parsley to the tomato sauce and turn the heat off. We will just let it sit while we bake the calzones, heating it at the last minute before we serve it.

When the dough is ready, we remove the dough from the bowl and punch it down. We divide it into two pieces (we actually made a whole batch of dough and divided it into four pieces, two for calzones and two for little pizzas). Each piece is spread into a 10-inch circle on a cutting board that is dusted with a little cornmeal. We probably should have made a slightly smaller circle since the dough was a little thin and it made a very large calzone! Next time we will try an 8-inch circle.

We place half the cheese filling on one side of the circle, making sure not to go to the edge but leaving about a half-inch border. We cover the cheese with half of the sausage and fold the side without filling over to seal in the filling. We fold the bottom edge up over the top edge and try to seal it as best we can with our fingers. We brush with half of the remaining olive oil on the top of the calzone and sprinkle with salt. We place on a parchment-covered cookie sheet, carefully, with the help of a spatula that we greased with vegetable spray. We repeat with the remaining calzone.

We bake for 25 minutes. We want the top and bottom of the calzones nicely browned. One of the calzones wasn’t properly sealed, and a little too thin, so it was difficult to get the bottom crust browned. We remove the cookie sheet from the oven and let the calzones sit for a few minutes before diving in. We quickly reheat the tomato sauce and serve it with the calzones.

Sausage Calzones

Servings and Times

Tools and Appliances

Ingredients