One of my first jobs was at a gas station 2 blocks away from my house. This was before I could drive so I would ride my bike there. I am not sure why, but I had the key to the place and was responsible for opening it and on the weekends closing. Sometimes my co-workers would order calzones from a local pizza place. I had never heard of a calzone before. It was basically a meaty, cheesy, greasy mess, but at the time I thought it was delicious. (In fact, I think this is where things started to go downhill for me as far as my eating habits!) Here is my version of the calzone that I feel good about eating and feeding my family.
Ingredients
wheat pizza dough
1 cup whole wheat flour
coconut oil spray
2 cups basil (chopped)
4 cloves garlic (peeled and pressed)
¼ cup pine nuts (raw)
1/8 cup coconut milk (unsweetened)
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
¼ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp dulse
1 regular green bell pepper(diced)
1 regular red onion (diced)
1 3.5 oz package sun-dried tomatoes (chopped)
1 2.25 oz can black olives (sliced)
4 artichoke hearts (chopped)
2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
Instructions
- Gather your ingredients. Pre-heat oven to 450.
- Prepare dough as per package instructions.
- Chop the bell pepper, onion, and finely dice 2 cloves of garlic.
- Lightly grease baking dish with coconut oil.
- Add bell pepper, onion, garlic to baking dish, lightly oil with coconut oil and bake for 20-30 min (stirring vegetables every 10 min). When done remove and set aside.
- Measure and prepare all your pesto ingredients.
- Add all ingredients (except for coconut milk) into your food processor (or VitaMix) and blend until mixed well (scraping sides down a couple of times).
- Slowly add coconut milk and mix well. Set aside.
- Prepare the remaining filling ingredients: chop the artichoke hearts, olives, and sun-dried tomatoes.
- Split your pizza dough in half and roll out into two equal rounds (unlike I did in the picture).
- Place an equal layer of flour onto your pizza pan (so it does not stick).
- Layout half of each pizza dough round on half of the pizza dish.
- Spread half of the pesto on each half of the pizza dough rounds.
- Add half (artichokes hearts, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and the roasted vegetables) to each calzone.
- Fold the dough on each over, tuck under and pinch to seal. Lightly spray top with coconut oil.
- Bake at 450 for 10-15 min or until the crust looks done (keep an eye on it, the crust is thin so you do not want it to burn).
- Remove let cool for 5 min, slice each calzone in half and serve with a side salad.
eschaumann May 26, 2012 at 4:51 am [edit]
Delicious! Wow. I doubled the recipe for company and they were a hit. I left the dough out for two hours to let it come to room temperature and I believe it really made a difference in the quality of the crust. It was not doughy at all.