We rely on leftovers a lot in our house. Dan takes them to work for lunch and we always have a leftover night during the week – usually Thursday or Friday. We are also in Chopped mode this week for meals – my description of trying to clear everything out of the pantry, fridge and freezer. I like to do this once a month. While it may not be completely satisfying, it’s necessary for us. I am always finding things in the back of the pantry that I never used, but it is still usable.
So when I wanted to make calzones, I decided to make them mini style so we could have leftovers. My recipe made 4 of them. I would suggest serving them with a salad or a pasta as a side.
Ingredients:
*Pizza dough (I use the refrigerated pre-made stuff)
*8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
*15-20 pepperonis
*1/4 cup pasta / pizza sauce
*2 tablespoons butter
*1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray it with non stick cooking spray.
If you are making your own pizza dough, roll it out into 4 balls and then flatten each one into its own circle. You could do 1 or 2 huge ones also if you’d like.
If you are using the premade stuff, roll it out and cut it into 4 sections. (**Disclaimer – my counters were super cluttered when I took these pictures – I was losing daylight so I had to work fast!!**)
Turn these sections into circles. I did it 2 ways – one way I rolled them into balls and then flattened them out but rolling it into a ball made it really tough so it didn’t flatten out very well. So I found it was easier to take the top right corner and meet it with the bottom right corner and the same as the left side. Seal it with the rest of the dough and work it around with your palm and fist to make it into a circle. Mine were about 5 inches.
Now you’re going to stuff them!
I put a handful of cheese, tablespoon or so of sauce, few pepperonis, more cheese (duh) and then closed them up. I had extra cheese so I put it to the side for later.
When you seal them, wrap the bottom layer over the top layer so they don’t ooze out!
In a small cup or bowl, melt the butter and add the garlic powder. Brush the butter mixture over top of the calzone(s).
Bake for 20 minutes, until brown. I added my extra shredded cheese for the last 3 minutes.
