Calzones

I tried my hand at calzones last night, and Corey and I both liked them, so I guess we'll call them a success. You can really put any combination of meats, cheeses, and vegetables in these. I generally followed an old Real Simple recipe and then also added fillings based on what I had on-hand.

CALZONES

Recipe Notes
Be sure to watch these in the oven to make sure that they don't overbake.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. tube pizza dough
• 1/2 lb. reduced-fat pork sausage (I used Jimmy Dean)
• 1/2 red bell pepper, finely diced
• 1/2 c. fresh baby spinach leaves
• 1/2 c. part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1/2 c. part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 2 tbsp. shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• Marinara sauce, for dipping

Instructions

1. Brown pork sausage with red bell pepper in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Set aside.

2. Combine cheeses (ricotta, mozarella, and Parmesan) in a medium bowl. Add baby spinach and stir well to combine.

3. Spray a cookie sheet with Pam. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

4. On a cutting board lightly coated in flour, separate pizza dough and roll it out into four equal circles, approximately 8 in. in diameter.

5. Place cheese and spinach mixture on 1/2 of the pizza dough circles, leaving a 1/2 inch border for sealing the calzone. Top with sausage and red bell pepper mixture.

6. Fold over calzones and seal, pressing both edges together to form a half-moon shape. Brush with olive oil.

7. Arrange calzones on cookie sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until calzones are golden brown.

8. Serve with marinara sauce.

Sausage & Vegetable Deep-Dish Pizza

This is the pizza recipe that I made to go along with the pizza dough from my previous post. Contrary to my previous belief, pizza is actually not that hard to make from scratch with the help of modern technology (for me, specifically, this help came from my food processor's dough blender attachment). So try this out and enjoy - Corey really liked it!

Recipe Notes

The cooking times were very different for this recipe in my oven (much shorter), so I would watch both the crust and the pizza carefully while it cooks. I don't like mushrooms so I left them out and added more zucchini. I think that green bell peppers would be great to mix in as well.

Nutritional Information (Per serving - 6 servings)
434 calories - 12.8 g. fat - 24.6 g. protein - 3.9 g. fiber

Ingredients

• 2 c. chopped zucchini
• 1/4 c. chopped onion
• 8 oz. package mushrooms, sliced (I substituted additional zucchini)
• 1/4 c. white wine
• 1/8 tsp. black pepper
• 2 c. fat free pasta sauce (I used Ragu Light Pasta Sauce with Tomato & Basil)
• 8 oz. hot Italian turkey sausage (I used Jenni-O's)
• 1 recipe Pizza Dough
• 1-1/2 c. shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. To prepare sauce, heat a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray and add zucchini, onion, and mushrooms to pan.

2. Saute 7 minutes or until lightly browned and soft.

3. Add wine and pepper, cooking 1 minute or until liquid almost evaporates.

4. Stir in pasta sauce. Remove from heat and cool.

5. Remove casings from sausage. Cook sausage in large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat or until browned, stirring to crumble.

6. Drain and add to sauce.

7. Prepare one recipe of pizza dough. Turn dough into a 13x9 inch baking pan greased with cooking spray. Gently press dough into pan and up the sides of the pan. Lightly spray the surface of the dough with cooking spray as well.

8. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand for 5 minutes. Remove plastic wrap and discard.

9. Spoon sauce mixture into crust. Bake on the bottom rack at 475 degrees for 20 minutes or until crust is browned. Remove from the oven.

10. Sprinkle both cheeses evenly over the top of the sauce. Bake on the middle rack for an additional 15 minutes or until crust is golden and cheese melts. (Watch in your oven - mine didn't take this long!)

11. Cool 10 minutes on a wire rack. Cut into six squares and serve.

Making Pizza Dough

Well, I decided to try something new last night - making pizza. There is a Cooking Light Sausage & Vegetable Deep Dish Pizza that I've been wanting to try, and I figured now or never! I was really nervous about making my own pizza dough, but I used the dough blender attachment on my Cuisinart food processor, and it was actually really easy!

It worked out well with my schedule because the dough only needed to rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour. So, I mixed the dough after work, left it to rise (covered) while I went to yoga, and popped it in the oven when I got home from my class. Easy! Here is how I did it:

Ingredients

• 2 tsp. honey
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1 c. warm water
• 2-1/4 c. all-purpose flour, plus additional for blending
• 1 tbsp. yellow cornmeal
• 1/2 tsp. salt
  

Instructions

1. Dissolve honey and yeast in 1 c. warm water; let stand 5 minutes.

2. Add 2-1/4 c. flour, cornmeal, and salt to yeast mixture and stir until soft dough forms. (This is where I put everything in the Cuisinart and let 'er rip!)

3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. (Again, cut out a TON of my productive time by doing this in the Cuisinart with the dough blender attachment!)

4. Add additional flour, 1 tbsp. at a time, until dough doesn't stick to hands (although dough will feel sticky).

5. Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning dough to coat on all sides with cooking spray.

6. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until doubled in size. Gently press two fingers into dough - if the indentation remains, the dough has risen enough.

7. Roll out or press into a baking dish. For deep-dish pizza, cook for 20 minutes at 475 degrees or until crust is golden, then add toppings and return to oven. In my oven, it only took between 10-15 minutes, so watch your dough carefully.