Spinach Artichoke Calzones

Wednesday, June 24, 2009


Every Friday night is pizza night at our house.  Sometimes I make it from scratch, sometimes I order it...either way I like not having to think about what to make for dinner.  Although my family loves this tradition, every once in a while I get the itch to try something a little different. When I found the recipe for these calzones, I decided they were pizza-like enough to count for our tradition, but with a fun new twist that would add a little pizazz to our Friday night fare.  

I normally make the crust for this type of dish from scratch, but I've never had much success getting the dough the right thickness for calzones before, so I stuck with the tubes of pizza dough from the refrigerated section to save my sanity.  The kids grumbled a little at first about it not being their normal pizza, but seemed to have no problem eating them all anyway.  


The ingredients:
2 cups low-moisture part-skim ricotta cheese
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 package (10-oz) frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry
1 can (15-oz) quartered artichoke hearts in water, drained and coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 -3 tubes prepared , refrigerated pizza dough (10-oz. each) **the recipe says "2", but I had enough filling to use 3 whole tubes**
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
2 cups tomato, marinara or pizza sauce, warmed, for dipping

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Combine ricotta, nutmeg, black pepper, parmesan cheese, spinach, artichoke hearts, and garlic in a bowl to make the filling. 

Roll out both tubes of pizza dough out on 2 separate nonstick cookie sheets (I ended up with enough filling for 3 tubes of dough) and cut each dough into fourths.  
Spread each fourth with mozzarella cheese and mound filling over half of each rectangle, then fold dough over top of filling; pinch edges to firmly seal.  If the dough tears, remove a little filling and repair. 
Repeat process with each of the remaining calzones, spacing them evenly on a baking sheet.  Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.  Serve warm with tomato or pizza sauce for dunking.  Add a tossed salad and you've got a complete meal!  The recipe claims it only makes 4 servings, but I ended up with 12 small calzones, which was probably more like 6 servings.  
Enjoy!

5 comments:

SnoWhite June 24, 2009 at 8:35 AM  

yummy!

I have found making a no-rise pizza dough to work really well for calzones... you can find a link to the recipe on my blog with the "breakfast pizza" recipe if you're interested.

redkathy June 24, 2009 at 10:07 AM  

Oh My Gosh these look wonderful! I just love home made Calzones, Pizza, and Stromboli. Try making the dough in a bread machine if you have one. They work great.

Katy ~ June 25, 2009 at 2:18 PM  

Oh, this looks soooo good! I love calzones. The ingredients in this hold great appeal to me. YUM YUM

teresa June 25, 2009 at 8:50 PM  

I love this combination! These look amazing!

Deanne June 28, 2009 at 8:37 PM  

That's funny. I never noticed that you take your food outside to take pictures of it! Now I notice the picnic table and deck railing. =)

What a great idea though. I've tried taking pictures of my food in my kitchen and it never turns out just right. Next time I'll try out our back door. Thanks for the tip!

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About This Blog

My name is Lara and while I'm definitely not a gourmet cook, I do love preparing tasty, healthy meals for my family. Finding new recipes to try and sharing the ones we've already fallen in love with is a passion I've had since college and the reason why I've started this blog! With five kids, I'm usually in a hurry, so you'll find most of these recipes kid friendly and simple to make.

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