Italian Calzone Recipe
My home town had a great, Italian-owned family pizzeria, where myself and many of my classmates celebrated our birthdays every year, with all our friends and family. Whether it was September or February we’d be wearing their infamous Sombrero (no, I don’t know why they had a sombrero, either). This dish is inspired by my favourite of all the regular pizza or Italian calzone recipes on their menu – a traditional Italian calzone recipe with a ham and mushroom filling, which was served with plain tomato sauce drizzled over it.
Instead, I serve my baked calzones with a fresh tomato salsa on the side. It has to be the simplest salsa ever to make, with absolutely no cooking required, and the fresh flavour really complements the rich calzone pizza recipe. You any combination of filling you like in this authentic Italian calzone recipe, making it ideal for veggies or carnivores.
Use cooked chicken or beef leftover from the Sunday roast to make it an Italian chicken calzone recipe or Italian beef calzone recipe.Or make yours an Italian sausage calzone recipe if you prefer. You could even chuck them all in to create a meat feast folded pizza. I wouldn’t recommend making this Italian calzone recipe with ricotta or any vegetables that contain high levels of water, though, to avoid the dreaded ‘soggy bottom’. Mushrooms are best for this reason. Or a more solid type of cheese.
Please don’t be put off by making dough. This is an easy Italian calzone recipe with pizza dough, I promise. It is so simple, and all you need is plain flour, dried yeast and salt. Plus a spare hour, to give it time to rise. Once made, baking takes under half an hour. This homemade calzone recipe is so delicious – and impresses everyone, too.
Serves 4
Italian calzone recipe ingredients
Calzone pizza dough
- Plain flour, 400g plus extra for surface and hands
- Fast action dried yeast, 1 x 7g sachet
- Salt, a pinch
Calzone filling recipe
- Mozzarella, drained, 500g
- Mushrooms, a few, thinly sliced (plus a few more if not using meat)
- Ham, chicken, pepperoni or chorizo (or a mixture), sliced or chopped, about 50g (optional)
Salsa (optional)
- Cherry or baby plum tomatoes, chopped, 100g
- Basil, fresh, a few leaves, torn into pieces
- Olive oil, 1/2 – 1 tsp
- Salt & pepper, freshly ground, to taste
Equipment
How to make Calzone
- Firstly, make the Italian calzone dough recipe. Add the flour to a large mixing bowl then mix in the yeast and salt. Add 100-125ml warm water (start with 100ml and add more if needed) and mix to make a dough, which needs to be soft and dry enough to work with.
- Knead on a lightly floured surface for about 5 minutes. Roll into a ball, put back into the bowl and cover with a damp (dampened with warm water, not cold) tea towel and put in a warm place for an hour, by which time the dough should be twice the size.
- Knead the dough again for a minute, then divide into quarters. Roll each piece into a ball then, using a rolling pin, shape into a circle about 25cm/10” across.
- Make sure the mozzarella is well drained and dry – pat with a piece of kitchen paper if needed – then tear it into pieces. Mix with the mushrooms &/meat, then place 1/4 of the mixture onto one side of each circle, leaving a rim around the edge. Brush the rims with water and fold over the other half of the dough. Seal by making continuous, slightly overlapping, indentations around the half-moon edge with your thumb.
- Bake for about 20-25 minutes at 180 degrees fan or until turning golden brown.
- While the pizzas bake, make the salsa by simply adding the basil and olive oil to the tomatoes and mixing together. Season.
Serve the calzones with the salsa.
Related recipes:
- Homemade pizza dough
- Puff pastry pizza
- Garlic dough balls
- Bacon & chicken pasta bake
- Cheese & courgette pasta bake
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