One of my favorite Italian dishes is, without any doubt, pizza followed by any type of plain and stuffed bread.

I have made many different pizzas and breads in my life, but I never tried to make calzone at home. I am happy I did get myself to try last week.

I made 3 different fillings:

– one simple tomato and mozzarella

– one with black olives and tuna

– one with sardines

I could not make up my mind on which type I liked the most, in fact I ate them all and also finished off what my boyfriend had left behind.

Here is the recipe!

Ingredients (makes 6):

• 2 cups of all purpose flour
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp instant yeast
• 1/2 cup lukewarm water
• 200 gr. tomato sauce
• 2 tbsp tuna in olive oil
• 1 sardine in olive oil
• 1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese
• fresh basil leaves
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsps olive oil
• 1 tbsp black olives

Start by making the pizza dough. In a bowl combine the instant yeast, sugar and lukewarm water. Let it stand on your kitchen counter until it starts bubbling (about 5 min)

In a bowl of your electric mixer combine flour and 1 tsp salt.

Add the yeast mixture to the flour plus 1 tsp of extra virgin olive oil and knead the dough (with the hook attachment or by hand) until it gets smooth and soft. Add more flour or water as needed

Place the dough into a well greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let it rest for about 2 hours or until it doubles in size. Now place the dough into a zip lock bag and refrigerate it overnight.
If you can’t wait, just go ahead and use the dough right away.

Divide the dough into 6 small balls

roll out each ball into a 10 cm circle. In 2 of these circles place 1 tbsp of tomato sauce, 1 tbsp of shredded mozzarella cheese, chopped fresh basil and a pitch of salt. Fold in half and sealed the edges.

In other 2 circles place (in each) 1 tbsp of tomato sauce, 1 tbsp shredded mozzarella cheese, 1 tbsp of tuna, some sliced black olives, chopped basil and a pitch of salt. Fold in half and seal the edges

In the remaining 2 circles place 1 tbsp of tomato sauce, minced sardine, 1 tbsp of shredded mozzarella, chopped fresh basil and a pitch of salt. Fold in half and sealed the edges.

Place your calzoni on a baking tray, that you have previously covered with parchment paper, drizzle some olive oil on top of your calzoni and bake in preheated oven at 250 C for about 20 min or until they have  a nice golden-brown color.

Remove from the oven and let them cool down on a wire rack

Serve

Love

– LittleDani

Note: Sardine in extra virgin olive oil, tuna, tomato sauce and extra virgin olive oil have all been kindly provided by AlceNero