It’s been awhile since I’ve done a recipe around here, but don’t worry, I am still eating. Here’s a calzone I made the other day.
I had made a batch of pizza dough that turned into some outstanding pizzas. They did not survive long enough for photography. This will be my standard pizza dough recipe from now on, so I record it here.
1 1/2 cups of 108F water
2 tsp sugar
1-2 tsp honey
2 1/4 tsp rapid rise yeast
2 cups unbleached flour
1 cup wheat flour
1/4 cup semolina
1-2 tsp salt
Olive Oil
The sugar and honey goes into the water, then the yeast. Let stand for 5 minutes until good and frothy. Add to the dry ingredients and stir with wooden spoon until incorporated enough to get your hands into it. Knead on a floured surface for 10 minutes until it’s a fairly smooth ball. Roll it around in an oiled ball and let it sit there for at least a half hour, but perferably an hour. Punch it down once and wait some more if you’ve got longer than that. It will make three 10-12 inch pizzas, so you may want to divide the dough in thirds and ‘proof’ the seperate balls by flattening them and letting them rise again all alone. Flatten by hand on a floured surface. Don’t use a rolling pin.
Pizza sauce
1lb ground beef
7 or 8 big mushroooms
7-8 sundried tomatoes
a medium size onion garlic
1/2 can of tomato paste
oregano
As a replacement or addition to your own spices, I’d suggest Chicago Deep Dish Pizza spice from the Spice House
Cheese, I perfer a mix of mostly mozzarella with some Parmigiano-Reggiano, but the half of the pizza I put Wisconsin cheddar (with a light layer of Parmagiano) on was great too, if not authentic.
You’ll find people who think oil in a pizza dough is grounds for a lawsuit, but I think it’s essential for the taste. Rolling it around in oil coats it for it’s long wait and makes it just oily enough. The other night I got away with about 8 minutes of kneading, and 45 minutes of rising, with one wimpy punch down. After making 2 pizzas, I had one more ball, which sat in the frig, in an oiled zip lock bag until the next day’s lunch. On a pan scattered with cornmeal and flour, I piled the leftover sauce into the middle of the flattened dough, added a layer of cheese, folded it over and crimped the edges. It went into a hot (450F) oven for close to 20 minutes. (Pizzas take half that time, in 500F or more).
Oh, and the fork in this picture is slightly ironic, you pick this thing up and eat it.