Homemade Calzones

An easy-to-follow recipe for spinach and cheese calzones. Use store-bought pizza dough and sauce or make your own. This will make 3 large calzones or 6 smaller calzones.

5 from 13 votes

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Course: main dish

Cuisine: Italian

Diet: Vegetarian

Prep Time: 25

Cook Time: 25

Total Time: 50

Servings: calzones

Calories: 324kcal

Author: Michelle

Ingredients

1 recipe pizza dough
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic
4 cups fresh spinach
16 ounces ricotta cheese
2 cups mozzarella cheese
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup fresh basil
2 tomatoes
1 egg white
1 cup tomato sauce
cornmeal as needed

Instructions

Make your pizza dough ahead of time to let it start rising.
1 recipe pizza dough
Peel and chop garlic. Heat a pan and add oil, then add the garlic. Once it starts to smell fragrant, add the spinach and stir. Once wilted, remove from heat and let it cool.
1 tablespoon olive oil, 3 cloves garlic, 4 cups fresh spinach
About twenty minutes before you want to start cooking your calzones, preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Wash tomatoes and cut in half. Remove seeds and ribs. Chop remaining tomato relatively finely, and add it to a bowl. Place ricotta, mozzarella, and Parmesan cheeses into bowl along with pepper.
16 ounces ricotta cheese, 2 cups mozzarella cheese, 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese, 1 teaspoon pepper, 2 tomatoes
Chiffonade basil, and add to bowl. Stir together filling ingredients.
1/4 cup fresh basil
Once the spinach cools, place onto a thick paper towel and squeeze out moisture, then add to filling and stir.
Cut dough into three equal pieces, each about the size of a baseball. If you are making 6 smaller calzones, make six pieces instead. Flour surface well, and roll dough into about a 10 inch circle.
Scoop one-third of the filling onto the bottom third of one circle. Drape the top two thirds of the dough over the filling, and tuck the dough into itself to seal.
Repeat with remaining dough and filling.
Liberally sprinkle cornmeal onto pizza peel. Gently pick up and place each calzone onto the pizza peel. Add a tablespoon of water to egg white and whisk. Brush the egg wash atop calzones, then place into 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes until lightly golden.
1 egg white, cornmeal
Remove from oven and serve immediately with tomato sauce.
1 cup tomato sauce

Equipment

Pizza Peel

Pizza Stone

Pastry Brush

Notes

While this recipe shares a spinach and tomato calzone, feel free to start with the cheese base and add your favorite pizza toppings from pepperoni to sauteed mushrooms and more. These can be cooled, then refrigerated and reheated in the oven at 200 degrees for 5-10 minutes and enjoyed the next day, but they're truly best fresh.
For more tips and tricks, be sure to read the full article above.

Nutrition

This site uses an online source to provide nutrition estimates as a courtesy. If you need exact values, please calculate yourself.