Thank you Vanity Fair® Napkins for sponsoring this post. Take on everyday messes with Vanity Fair® Extra Absorbent Napkins!
Because I am a cookbook author and food blogger, people assume that dinner at my house is an elegant affair. In my friends’ imaginations, my family sits down together at the dinner table, napkins in laps, and savors a three-course feast while discussing current events. WRONG!
Nothing could be further from the truth. So many nights, dinner at my house is catch-as-catch-can. Between homework, music lessons, sports practices and Hebrew school, my kids are on the go from 3 pm until 7 or sometimes even 8 pm. Sit down to dinner? Forget it! You grab what you can, when you can or you don’t eat.
As a result, I have learned to modify some of my kids’ favorite meals to be eaten while standing at the kitchen counter or – even better – while doing something else. For example, my kids love classic spaghetti bolognese. A delicious dinner, to be sure, but not exactly something you can eat with one hand while also doing math homework.
Enter the calzone. Imagine all the flavors of spaghetti bolognese wrapped inside a handy, easy-to-hold dough pocket. It’s a complete one-dish meal that each kid can eat on his or her own schedule. Although I sometimes make my own dough from scratch, using store-bought pizza dough makes calzones an especially quick and easy weeknight dinner.
But these calzones would not be much fun without a dish of marinara sauce on the side for dipping. So, even though they make a convenient and crowd-pleasing dinner, calzones are not exactly mess-free.
In order to keep tomato sauce off my kids’ faces, shirts, and, frankly, math homework, I put a big stack of Vanity Fair® Extra Absorbent Napkins right next to their plates. These soft, surprisingly absorbent napkins contain my kids’ biggest mealtime messes and bring a small touch of civility to on-the-go meals. Just because you are eating at the kitchen counter does not mean that you wipe your hands on your shirt or, god forbid, my shirt!
The best part about making calzones at home is adapting them to you family’s taste. You can easily make this into a vegetarian dinner by replacing the ground beef with sautéed vegetables such as zucchini, olives or mushrooms. Or go the other direction and try calzones with sausage or pepperoni. Basically, if something works as a pizza topping, it works in a calzone. Just don’t skimp on the tomato sauce – or the Vanity Fair® Extra Absorbent Napkins.
These calzones are generous in size, so four calzones easily feeds four people with some leftover for lunch the next day. In fact, half a calzone with some marinara sauce in a small container makes a very popular school lunch that beats a turkey sandwich any day of the week. Just be sure to pack Vanity Fair® Extra Absorbent Napkins into that lunch box because crazy stuff happens at the lunch table.
Ingredients
- 2 TB extra virgin olive oil
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 1 1/4 lb. lean ground beef
- 2 cups ricotta cheese
- 1 cup chopped spinach, fresh or frozen (if frozen, thawed and drained)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- Pinch red pepper flakes
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 cup grated mozzarella
- 2 lbs. refrigerated pizza dough, at room temperature
- 1 egg
- 16 oz. marinana or pizza sauce
Instructions
- In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat until shimmering.
- Add the onion and stir to coat with the oil.
- Sauté the onion until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the ground beef to the skillet, breaking it up with your spoon, and sauté until no longer pink, another 5 minutes. Drain off any accumulated fat. Season well with salt and pepper. Set aside. (Can be prepared in advance and refrigerated until needed.)
- In a medium bowl, combine ricotta, spinach, garlic, Parmesan, nutmeg and red pepper flakes and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper.
- Preheat the oven to 450. Fill a cup or small ramekin with water and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Divide the pizza dough into four equal portions and roll each into a ball. Work with one piece of dough at a time, keeping the others covered until needed.
- On a well-floured board, roll out the first ball of dough to a 7-inch circle.
- To assemble the calzone: leaving a half-inch border around the edges, place 1/2 cup of the ricotta mixture on one side of the dough, leaving the other side empty. Top the ricotta with 1/2 of the meat mixture followed by 1/4 cup of mozzarella. Moisten the border with a little bit of water. Fold the other half of the dough over the filling and pinch or crimp the edges closed. Transfer to one of the prepared baking sheets.
- Repeat with the remaining balls of dough and ingredients until you have prepared four calzones, two on each baking sheet. (Calzones may be covered and kept refrigerated for several hours prior to baking.
- Beat the egg with a teaspoon of water to create an egg wash.
- Brush the top and sides of each calzone with egg wash and poke a small hole in the top to allow steam to escape.
- Bake calzones until golden brown on top and they sound hollow when tapped, 15-20 minutes.
- Allow to cool slightly before cutting or serving.
- Serve with warmed marinara or pizza sauce on the side.
Would have never thought I could make this in my kitchen. Good to know. Looks delicious!