For week number 1, I made the Easy Calzones. I must say, they were pretty easy! And delicious. One of my challenges with all of her recipes is that they usually serve 4 or 6 or 8 people, and I am usually (not always) just cooking for 2, so I get to use my handy dandy (or lack of) math skills to cut the recipes in half. That's how it was for this recipe. Hers serves 8, and I really only needed 2. The recipe calls for Rhodes Frozen Dinner rolls, (or a loaf), but it didn't specify how many, so I totally guessed on how many rolls to use. I went with 6, and I think they ended up being the perfect size. I had to let the rolls thaw and rise for a few hours. I got a little impatient (shocker) and probably pulled them out too soon. I put them out to thaw at 11:30 and didn't use them until 5:15. They got HUGE!
See that can of cream of potato soup? Funny story. I CANNOT find my rolling pin. It's just gone. Actually, I'm pretty certain it's in a box in our garage. (Separate from the apartment). Which we can't get into. Because we lost the opener. Yeah. So I had to get creative with how to roll these puppies out. I found this big can in the pantry, and it worked GREAT! I squished 3 rolls together for each calzone. With lots of flour, I put some wax paper on top of the dough and rolled it out with the can. Easy peasy life hack! When your rolling pin is MIA, use a can!
After I rolled the dough out "paper thin" as the recipe says, I thought the calzones looked a little small for the amount of yumminess I wanted to put in them, so I rolled them out some more. For the filling, I mostly just cut her recipe in half, leaving out egg and replacing the meats. The egg part freaked me out, (I don't know why..) so for the cheese I used:
7.5 oz. ricotta (approximately, it was about half a 15 oz container)
7.5 oz. ricotta (approximately, it was about half a 15 oz container)
1/4 C parmesean
3/4 C mozzarella
1/2 tsp. salt
A tiny amount of pepper (husband doesn't like it so much)
1 tbsp. parsley
Mmm cheese. I don't know why you can't see the parsley in this pic, but it was there!
For the meat, I used pepperoni and ham in Ben's, and leftover pesto chicken, (I LOVE pesto right now), in mine.
Calzones, ready to be folded and baked. Mmm.
After the calzones were filled, I folded them and brushed them with egg, like the recipe says. Then I baked them for approximately 18 minutes. This is longer than the recipe called for, but I didn't think they were done enough or golden enough after 13 minutes so I left them in for a bit longer. Ben's ended up perfect, mine coulda used another minute or so. Overall they were really good though!
Folded, brushed, ready for the oven. Parchment paper is the best invention ever, btw.
I served the calzones with Bertolli Organic Traditional Tomato and Basil sauce, aka the best red sauce ever. It is my absolute favorite sauce, but I can't always find it. Luckily, the grocery store I've been going to lately has it. (Harris Teeter, which, fun fact, is the store that bought out the Winn Dixies around here. Good news, Harris Teeter is aweeesoomme, and way nicer than Winn Dixie. But also kinda expensive...)
Overall impression of this recipe: Very delicious and easy
Challenges: Cutting the recipe in half (math, especially fractions, are NOT my forte. Probably wouldn't be a problem for a normal person.) Rolling the dough out was also a challenge, and took slightly more effort than I anticipated.
Things I will change next time: I might use 1 more roll for each calzone next time. Although, we both ate them all and were full for the rest of the night, so maybe not. I also will put in more meat and less cheese next time. I just had a ton of the cheese mixture so I was trying to use it all. Maybe next time I would quarter the cheese mixture from the recipe. (I will have to call Ben or my Dad to figure that out. :) JUST KIDDING! I will google it...) I might also throw in some (super) finely chopped spinach, to up the health factor, at least in my calzone, I know my dearest doesn't prefer spinach.
Do I recommend this recipe?: Heck yes!
Let me know if you try these, I would highly recommend them! Thanks for reading my FIRST Pioneer Woman Wednesday!
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