veggie calzone.

more vegetarian days.
apparently.
it's amazing how little i'm missing the meat these days.
don't worry i won't abandon you all for the raw life, vegan way or even vegetarian lifestyle.
but still, it's nice to mix it up a bit right?

anyway, i picked up some whole wheat  pizza dough from tjs last week in hopes of making pizza a week night option since the homemade dough should be more of a weekend thing.

of course the day my tummy calls out 'pizza piza!' is the day nelzo goes out for lunch to the much-anticipated Orso. (finally got to try it myself , very good pizza! and the cannoli with orange peel was perfection.)

so instead of pissing off my tummy and good, i altered the pizza option to a calzone, still letting me use the dough and similar ingredients to pizza. score!

i also kept it veggie since it was just me. i probably would have picked up some turkey pepperoni or prosciutto if nac had been a player in the night's meal.

A little about calzones. Did you know the word calzone means stocking or trouser? And in Scotland they stuff their calzones with chicken tikka? I guess that's more like a samosa in a way? Which non-directly brings me around to Dave's point, that every ethnicity (debating ethnicity is a whole other ball of wax) has it's own version of a sandwich (if you broaden the definition to be something doughy wrapped around some filling). Italy even has two: the calzone and the panini, India has the samosa, Spain and Portugal have the empanada, Mexico has tacos, Japan has dumplings, Philly has the cheesesteak, France has the croque mousier and croque madame (and french fries and french toast) and too many more to count.

Recipe: Veggie Calzone

Ingredients:

1/4 of a bag of dough, about 4 oz

2 oz portabellas

2 strips roasted red peppers

1 cup frozen spinach

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

1 shallot

2 teaspoons olive oil

cooking spray

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flake

grated cheese (you chose the amount!)

Method:

Let the dough rest on the counter in a ball, covered in towel for about 20 minutes

Preheat oven to 350

Filling:

Warm a large frying pan to medium heat, add cooking spray and olive oil.

Add garlic and shallot, let cook 2-3 minutes, careful not to burn garlic.

Season salt, pepper and red pepper flake

Add spinach, mushrooms and roasted red pepper

Let cook and soften together 10-15 minutes

Dough:

Roll dough out to about 1/4 inch thickness

Fill dough with cooked filing

Fold dough over each side, sealing the edges with water so it all sticks together

Place on cookie sheet, bake for 25-35 minutes

Serve with extra tomato sauce