Calzones

The combinations are endless when you make these tasty calzones! The hardest part of this recipe is taking the time to reduce the pasta sauce into a thick and tasty pizza sauce....which is soooooo much better for you than the jarred pizza sauces that are available.

1 jar of your favorite organic marinara ( I love Glen Muir brand)
1 recipe pizza dough (see my fav pizza dough recipe)
turkey or chicken italian sausage, casing removed, crumbled & browned
turkey pepperoni
lo-fat mozzarella cheese, shredded
mushrooms, sliced
black olives,sliced
lo-fat ricotta cheese

In a medium saucepan, simmer pasta sauce until reduced by about half...will take 30-40 minutes. When sauce is reduced, remove from heat & let cool.

Preheat oven to 450. If using a pizza stone (which I highly recommend) place stone in oven.

Cut pizza dough balls into 8 pieces. Lightly oil a large cutting board and roll each dough piece into a 6" circle. Add a couple tbsp sauce, leaving a 1" border. Add your pizza toppings (let your imagination go wild) fold dough over filling and pinch to seal seam tightly.

Transfer calzones to hot pizza stone and bake 15-18 minutes or until calzones are bubbly and browned/blistered on top.

Remove from oven and enjoy! My daughter Tori, loves to dip her calzones in pizza sauce. My other daughter Emily is into ranch dressing as her dipping sauce.

Filling Ideas

For Cheese Calzones - mix a couple tbsp ricotta with course salt, fresh cracked pepper and a pinch of italian seasoning. place on one half of calzone, top with mozzarella cheese.

Pepperoni - place 6-8 pepperoni rounds on calzone & top with mozzarella cheese.

Sausage,mushroom & black olive - you get the idea :)