Originally posted on October 30, 2005.

Being a huge fan of Italian food and pizza, I decided to make homemade calzones with Italian sausage, mozzarella cheese, and some herbs and veggies.

I used the pizza dough recipe I used in my “Tim’s Bitchin’ Pizza” recipe. And I also used organic ingredients where available, and things like fresh mozzarella and oregano.

Basic Instructions:

1. Make some pizza dough. (click here for my pizza dough recipe)
2. Divide ½ of pizza dough recipe into 4 equal pieces, then knead and form each chunk into a ball and let “rest” for 30 – 60 minutes.
3. Cut up and cook the Italian sausage until browned.
4. Chop the mince the other ingredients and produce.
5. Flatten out the dough balls and form into flat and thin pizzas.
6. Add some sauce and mozzarella, and add the ingredients, to the dough.
7. Close and crimp the edges well, and place onto a pizza stone in a preheated 475° – 500° oven.
8. Bake for 7 – 10 minutes, or until golden brown.

Now onto the pictures for the rest!

Our basic ingredients are pizza dough, Italian sausage, fresh mozzarella cheese, garlic, green pepper, mushrooms, fresh oregano, olive oil and some pizza or spaghetti sauce.

I had made a batch of my pizza dough the night before and let it rise in the refrigerator overnight for 18 hours or so..

After punching it down I cut the dough in half, then cut one half into 4 individual pieces. I kneaded each and formed them into balls. I then put a dish towel over them and let them rest for 30 minutes or so.

While the dough balls were resting I cut up the sausage and got it ready for cooking..

Note: Don’t forget to remove the skin off the sausage if you bought whole like I did. You can also buy ground Italian sausage too if you want..

The sausage needs to be cooked before using it. I cooked the sausage in some olive oil in a pan, then set it aside in a bowl to drain on some paper towels. It should also be cooled down some before using it in the filling.

Then while the cooked sausage was cooling off I chopped up the pepper and mushrooms, minced a couple of cloves of fresh garlic, and chopped the fresh oregano.

By now the dough had rested enough, so I formed each ball like a tiny flat pizza. I also lightly brushed on some olive oil, leaving a ½ inch dry around the edges so we can crimp it closed later..

Add some sauce to ½ of the dough, then some slices of the mozzarella cheese, and a little of each of the rest of your ingredients.. I added a little more sauce on top (not pictured, so you can see the ingredients) along with some more slices of the mozzarella before closing.

Then pull the other ½ of the dough over the top. Fold over the edges a little and crimp them closed good.

I had preheated the oven to around 475° – 500° and gave it a good 30 minutes to an hour to get the pizza stone good and hot. Then, using a pizza peel, slid the calzone off onto the hot pizza stone. I baked them 2 at a time for about 7 – 10 minutes until they were golden brown.

Note: Dusting your pizza peel lightly with some semolina flour (semolina is the kind of flour used in ravioli pasta) will help the calzone slide off easily onto the hot pizza stone.. Sticking is bad, mm’k.

And here are the finished calzones! The only thing I think I would have done differently would be to use about double the amount of mozzarella cheese, and a little more sauce.

Originally posted on September 4, 2005.

Here are the ingredients, cost, and recipe for my ravioli pasta with lots of photos of the process. It’s fairly simple using just semolina flour, all-purpose flour, eggs, salt, olive oil and a tiny bit water.

The Basic Ravioli Pasta Process:

1. Sift together semolina flour, all-purpose flour and salt.
2. Whisk or beat with fork eggs, olive oil and water.
3. Make mountain of flour on any flat surface, and form well in the center of it.
4. Pour in ½ of egg mixture and begin forming dough with 2 fingers while supporting the mound of flour with other hand, adding in the rest of the egg mixture once the dough gets going.
5. Kneed dough for 8 – 10 minutes, flouring surface with semolina as needed.
6. Form dough into ball and wrap with plastic wrap.
7. Let dough “rest” in the refrigerator for an hour or so.
8. Cut dough into 2 pieces with a knife or dough blade.
9. Roll out dough into thin strips the thickness of a nickel.
10. Fill with Ravioli Filling, brush edges with egg wash, then close and seal individual ravioli dumplings making sure no air is trapped inside them.

Now onto photos of the process! Woo.

Here we have the ingredients we’ll need. Semolina flour, all-purpose flour, olive oil, salt, a couple of eggs, and a tiny bit of water..

Note: Although recommended I’ve heard that ravioli pasta can also be made with just all-purpose flour. Semolina can be found easily at places like Whole Foods and Central Market in the bulk containers, so I’d suggest using some semolina too.

Start by sifting together 1 cup of semolina flour, 1 cup of all-purpose flour and a pinch of salt.

Whisk or beat with a fork the 2 eggs, teaspoon of olive oil and 1 – 2 tablespoons of H₂O..

Form the flour mixture we sifted earlier into a mound on any flat surface. Then form a well or hole in the center of the mount and pat the sides in so they’re stable.

Pour about ½ of the egg, oil and water mixture into the well in the flour.. After you start working the dough you’ll add in the rest.

Note: Please resist the urge to pour all of the egg mixture into the flour at the beginning, unless you enjoy cleaning egg off of your cabinets and floor (Not that I’d know anything about that, heh)..

Patience grasshopper, the rest will be added in after you get the dough started.

Use two fingers to start mixing the egg mixture into the flour gradually, while supporting the wall of the mound with your other hand. Supporting the mound with your other hand will prevent the wall from collapsing and the egg mixture from leaking all over the place.

Note: Do not force the dough to take all of the flour. You’ll probably have some flour left over when the dough has come together, I did..

After a while it’ll start to look like dough! And since I don’t yet own a pasta machine (and will be rolling it out by hand) I kneaded it for around 8 to 10 minutes or so, dusting the surface with semolina flour as needed so it won’t stick.. Then form the dough into a nice ball.

After forming the dough ball, wrap it pretty tight with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for a least an hour to rest. Do not skip this step!, like any other dough this won’t work well without first ‘resting’ it for a little while.

After removing the dough from the fridge I let it sit for 10 or 15 minutes on the counter so it would be a little easier to work with.. I then cut the dough lengthwise into two pieces so I could roll them out into thin strips.

Then I start rolling out the dough, dusting the board and dough lightly with semolina as needed, while trying to keep it somewhat in a straight line. I found it can want to roll out into a curve, so I applied more pressure to one side of the rolling pin when needed and also moved and stretched it a little by hand to keep it straight.

Note: The reason we let the dough ‘rest’ for an hour in the fridge earlier was to allow the gluten proteins (Alton Brown is always going on about, heh) to get going so the dough is pliable and doesn’t want to tear while we roll it out and work with it..

Once I had rolled out the pasta dough to about the thickness of a nickel I trimmed it a little on each end and the sides with my trusty pizza cutter.. I had wrapped the other chunk of dough in plastic wrap so it wouldn’t dry out while I worked with the first half.

Note: Mid-way through rolling I had cut the dough strip into two pieces since my board is too short, and then finished rolling out each piece. If you have a pretty long counter top, or table, this won’t be necessary.. I need a bigger kitchen!

Now fetch the Ravioli Filling we made earlier (click here for recipe, or use your own) and place small globs of filling spaced apart enough so we’ll be able to close and completely seal each ravioli dumpling.

Then whisk or beat together with a fork one egg and a couple tablespoons of water. Use a brush to lightly (but don’t over due it!) brush on the egg wash in the center, outer edge, and in between each of the dumplings. This is the “glue” that will seal each ravioli together.

Fold over the other half of the pasta and seal each ravioli, while trying to make sure there’s no air trapped inside with the filling. Press the edges down good for a nice tight seal!

I used a pizza cutter again (you could also use a knife) to cut the strips into individual ravioli dumplings. Pick each up and press the edges of each between your fingers to make sure there is a nice tight seal.

You can put them in a freezer bag and into the freezer until you’re ready to use them. When ready to cook put the frozen ravioli right into a pot of rapidly boiling water for 4 to 8 minutes or until tender and slop on your favorite marinara or pesto sauce.. Buon appetito!