“Are the cow-zones, ready, Mama Cate?” the mini-chefs asked, peering into the oven. Who could not love teaching this bunch of children week after week?
Because, as I explained to the mini-chefs, calzone are sort of like a little pizza that you fold in half, they worked with great concentration and-as always-great abandon. My mother-in-law, Linda, made a guest appearance at class last Wednesday, and seeing as she’s a smart lady who wears fancy white shirts to these appearances, she played trucks and trains with Liev while the other Yummies slung tomato sauce around and flour flew. Our calzone, overstuffed, came out unsealed for the most part, with cheese and sauce bubbling enticingly out of them.
On a sort of mama side note, here, I also made some of these in bulk later in the week to take to a food swap, cranked out 34 of them in the course of an afternoon, stuffing them with (cooked) ground turkey meat from our little Saturday greenmarket. The turkey got added to the rest of the ingredients listed in the recipe below. A bunch went into my freezer for lunches and whatnot, a bunch got swapped with friends for their delicious treats, and one got devoured right then and there (that would be by me). They were the perfect thing to make en masse as you can make a vat of sauce, a heap of dough, switch up the veggies and other stuffing ingredients easily, and because they freeze so beautifully.
Get ready to turn that oven light on. Your Yummies, too, will probably be hanging around asking when the cow-zones will be ready.
Calzone
*one recipe of Ari’s Artisanal pizza dough (recipe here)
*2 c. marinara sauce
*1/4 c. parmesan, grated
*8 oz. ricotta cheese
*a large ball of fresh mozzarella, grated
*2 c. broccoli florets, chopped
*3 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
*1 T. olive oil
*salt and pepper to taste
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Line two (un-rimmed) baking sheets with parchment.
Together: Place the broccoli and garlic onto the rimmed baking sheet, and toss them with the olive oil and some salt and pepper. Spread them out in one even layer.
Big Person: Roast this in the oven till the broccoli turns bright green, about 10-12 minutes. Then sprinkle with the parmesan cheese and roast another 5 minutes. Set aside to cool while you start to work with the dough. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F now in preparation for baking the calzone.
Together: Put the ricotta and mozzarella cheeses in a large sealable plastic bag. Seal well. Let your mini-chef knead the bag till the two cheese are nicely mixed together.
Sprinkle your work space with extra flour and rub some onto your hands. Separate the dough into little lumps, big enough to be able to fill but small enough for your Yummy to handle easily. Working together, roll each lump into a ball. Pat each ball down into a pancake by clapping your hands together. Now, working around the perimeter of each pancake start to stretch the dough into a bigger and bigger circle. If this is really difficult for your mini-chef, put the pancake in both of your hands and work together, allowing your mini-chef to pull the dough on one side of the circle while you pull away on the other side. Keep rotating the pancake around as you do this till the dough is about 1/4-inch thick (or so).
Place a small spoonful of sauce in the middle of each circle. Then another small spoonful of the ricotta-mozzarella mixture will go on top of that. Last, place a bit of broccoli on top. Fold your circle in half, sealing in your filling. Press down on the outer edge of the calzone and decorate in your favorite way: pressing with a fork, pinching it with your finger, etc.
Place the calzone on the parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake 12-16 minutes or until the tops begin to turn golden. After you pull them out of the oven, cool the calzone a few minutes and eat warm.
