March 9
Very Cheap, Very Good Calzones

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- Whole Wheat Calzones [View Recipe]
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Ingredients
- .5 batch pizza dough
- 2 cups spinach
- 1 cup ricotta
- .5 cup mozzarella
- 2 tablespoons cheese (freshly grated)
- black pepper
- 1 link sausage (leftover, sautéed)
- 4 quartered artichoke hearts (drained)
- oil
- salt
- cornmeal
- 1 cup [object Object]
- red pepper flakes
- oregano
Instructions
We start by taking the dough out of the refrigerator and preheating the oven, with a pizza stone in it, to <temp val="450"/>.
While the oven heats, we get the preparation done for the fillings. We put the spinach in a medium sized bowl with half a tablespoon of water and cook in the microwave until wilted (between 30 seconds and a minute). We squeeze it dry with a clean towel (we could have used our ricer for this) and then chop the spinach.
In a large bowl, we combine the ricotta, mozzarella, and Locatelli. Adding a little salt, and some freshly ground black pepper, the mixture is stirred and tasted for seasoning. The cooled spinach is stirred in.
The already cooked sausage and the canned artichoke hearts are chopped with kitchen scissors.
The dough is divided into two pieces. Each piece is spread into an 8-inch circle on a large, oiled dinner plate. We place some of the spinach-cheese filling on one side of the circle, making sure to leave a half-inch border. We cover the cheese with sliced sausage and artichoke hearts, according to individual tastes. We fold the side without filling over to seal in the filling, folding the bottom edge up over the top edge and trying to seal it as best we can with our fingers.
We drizzle some of the olive oil on top and sprinkle with salt.
Finally, we use our kitchen scissors to make a couple of slits in the top of the calzone to allow for steam to escape.
The assembled calzone is placed on a cornmeal dusted pizza peel. We repeat with the remaining calzone, putting in "just enough" filling. The remaining fillings are reserved in the fridge for another use.
Each calzone is placed on the pizza stone and baked for 25 minutes. We want the top and bottom of the calzones nicely browned and bubbling.
When cooked, we remove the calzones from the oven using tongs and allow them to sit for a few minutes. We quickly reheat the tomato sauce in the microwave. The calzones are served with the hot tomato sauce, some red pepper flakes and dried oregano.
- Roasted Asparagus
We used up the last of the Trader Joe's pizza dough. Tonight's dough ball produced enough to feed the entire family—with leftovers. Not bad for 79¢!
We had the whole wheat dough tonight, making dinner slightly healthier than it would have been with regular dough. There was no noticeable lack of taste. As long as course salt is spread on top, it's good.
The baby was a miserable little kid today. She is still getting over a sickness, so we'll forgive her today. Still, there was a lot of screaming.
The kids enjoyed the breadsticks that we fashioned from the dough. They were a little unsure of the spinach ricotta filling despite it being fairly close to the BOP topping, but eventually they ate and seemed to enjoy.