Foodists

New Year’s Day Calzones

Chorizo, Basil & Mushroom Calzone

One of my food-based resolutions in the New Year is to make pizza dough once a week, either on the Sunday or Monday night so that we have it on hand later on in the work week when the temptation arises to order in. I’ve been using this recipe for the dough which has turned out great results regardless of whether I freeze it for a few days before use or make it only a couple of hours before the meal. The first pizzas I made were served as bite size appetizers at a couple of holiday gatherings. I topped one of them with spinach and pine nuts and the other with sun dried tomatoes, garlic and black olives. They were a big hit in both instances and the dough was light and fresh and very tasty.

Tonight I decided to mix it up a little and make calzones. For the stuffing, I fried up garlic and onions until they were beginning to brown, then added a diced chorizo sausage, 4 chopped mushrooms and a half ziploc bag of basil that we have in our freezer from our summer garden. Once this was all well mixed together, I dumped in a glass of red wine and a squirt of tomato paste. Finally I added about half a cup of tomato sauce (normally I make my own sauce for pasta dishes etc. but we’ve been buying bottles of La Molisana sauce lately for our daughter’s meals and it tends to work very nicely for pizza seeing you need very little and you’ve also got a number of other elements in the cooking process to contend with).

I gave all of this a good stir and reduced the heat to a simmer and let it thicken up. As I’ve already mentioned, you do not want too much sauce on a pizza or it will get soggy fast so the thicker the better. While it reduced I divided the dough into four and rolled it out. Then I distributed the sauce between each, topped them off with a generous handful of mozzarella and then folded the tops over, pressing the edges together to create a sealed pocket.

Baked this for 20 minutes at 350 with the last four minutes under the broiler to brown the crust and then served it up with a mixed green salad with a simple balsamic vinaigrette (olive oil, balsamic vinegar, Dijon, salt and pepper). A delicious casual New Year’s Day meal with enough for lunch the next day.