Spinach Calzones

"My Moosewood Cookbook pretty much falls open to the page with this recipe. These are cheesy and delicious. It's a bit of work if you make your own dough, but they always work out great (I have been known to use frozen bread dough). Prep time includes rising time."
 
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photo by Charmie777 photo by Charmie777
photo by Charmie777
photo by Charmie777 photo by Charmie777
Ready In:
1hr 45mins
Ingredients:
15
Serves:
6
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ingredients

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directions

  • Filling:

  • If using fresh spinach, wash, stem and finely chop, steam it quickly on medium high heat, adding no additional water. When wilted and deep green, remove to a bowl with a slotted spoon. (if using frozen - thaw and squeeze out as much moisture as you can).
  • Saute onion and garlic in butter till translucent and soft.
  • Combine all ingredients, mix well, salt and pepper to taste.
  • Dough:

  • Soften together yeast, water and honey.
  • Add salt and flour to make a soft dough. Knead 10 minutes, or till smooth and elastic, adding flour if necessary to keep from being sticky.
  • Cover and let rise till doubled (about 1 hour - less if using rapid rise yeast).
  • Punch down. Divide into six sections and roll out in rounds 1/4 inch thick.
  • Fill with 1/2-3/4 cup filling, placing filling on one half of the circle, leaving a 1/2 inch rim.
  • Moisten the rim with a little water, fold the empty side over, and crimp the edges.
  • Prick here and there with a fork to allow steam to escape.
  • Bake on an oiled tray (I use a baking stone) in a preheated 450 oven for 15-20 minutes or till crisp and lightly browned.
  • Brush each pastry with a little butter as it comes from the oven.

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Reviews

  1. Yummmm! I have made this several times. I double the recipe and put the extras in the freezer for later. They freeze really well. I always add more nutmeg than is called for in the recipe because I love the flavour of nutmeg with the creamy spinach. This last time I added about 1 cup sliced mushrooms in the pan with the onions and instead of fresh garlic I used dried roasted garlic. I was all out of parmesan cheese so I used half mozzarella and half cheddar. It worked out really well and was delicious!
     
  2. Delicious! I used frozen spinach, which hellped cut down on prep time. The filling and the crust were both delicious. Overall, very easy to make, and will be made often at our house!
     
  3. My mom made these for our Christmas eve dinner (we're a big group of vegetarians) and they were excellent! I know she said she had a lot of filling left over like some others said. I used the dough recipe last week for regular pizza and it's the best dough I've made so far. Thanks for the recipe!
     
  4. We loved these and they were gone in no time! We will have again!
     
  5. Spectacular crust! I let mine rise - by accident - for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Otherwise, I followed the instructions exactly :-) RE: Filling - I cut the ricotta entirely. My hubby hates ricotta and cottage cheese. I minced a medium, yellow onion (didn't measure whether it was actually 1/2 cup, so it may have been more or less). I substituted pecorino romano for the parmesan, because it's all I had on hand. I used 12 oz of Fresh Baby Spinach. And I added 2 links of cooked and crumbled regular Italian sausage, because hubby likes meat. Otherwise, the filling was by the book. Note: Prep for fresh spinach, which I recommend, takes a big chunk of time relative to the rest of the prep. Going through and painstakingly cutting off stems - I highly recommend that you do not skip this part - takes time. I learned to put my spinach into the Quisinart with the chopping appendage after chopping most if it by hand (with a knife and too-small, plastic cutting board :-)) So, just cut the stems and throw 'em in, if you have one! Then, I steamed it, by putting on a big pot of water to boil, throwing the spinach into a colinder, and resting the colinder over the pot of boiling water. Rudimentary, but it works :-) LOVED it.
     
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Tweaks

  1. Yummmm! I have made this several times. I double the recipe and put the extras in the freezer for later. They freeze really well. I always add more nutmeg than is called for in the recipe because I love the flavour of nutmeg with the creamy spinach. This last time I added about 1 cup sliced mushrooms in the pan with the onions and instead of fresh garlic I used dried roasted garlic. I was all out of parmesan cheese so I used half mozzarella and half cheddar. It worked out really well and was delicious!
     
  2. Spectacular crust! I let mine rise - by accident - for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Otherwise, I followed the instructions exactly :-) RE: Filling - I cut the ricotta entirely. My hubby hates ricotta and cottage cheese. I minced a medium, yellow onion (didn't measure whether it was actually 1/2 cup, so it may have been more or less). I substituted pecorino romano for the parmesan, because it's all I had on hand. I used 12 oz of Fresh Baby Spinach. And I added 2 links of cooked and crumbled regular Italian sausage, because hubby likes meat. Otherwise, the filling was by the book. Note: Prep for fresh spinach, which I recommend, takes a big chunk of time relative to the rest of the prep. Going through and painstakingly cutting off stems - I highly recommend that you do not skip this part - takes time. I learned to put my spinach into the Quisinart with the chopping appendage after chopping most if it by hand (with a knife and too-small, plastic cutting board :-)) So, just cut the stems and throw 'em in, if you have one! Then, I steamed it, by putting on a big pot of water to boil, throwing the spinach into a colinder, and resting the colinder over the pot of boiling water. Rudimentary, but it works :-) LOVED it.
     

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<p>Welcome to my page! It's a good place to start looking if you need to find me since I come here nearly every day for inspiration as I pursue the noble occupation of feeding family and friends. <br /><br /><img src=http://www.recipezaar.com/members/home/353579/half%20marx-brothers-a-night-at-the-opera.jpg alt= /> <br /><br /><img src=http://www.recipezaar.com/members/home/353579/2640.jpg alt= /> <br /><br /><img src=http://www.recipezaar.com/members/home/353579/kaiserklan.jpg alt= /> <br /><br />My family moved across the country to southern California&nbsp;7 years ago. The first time I ever set foot on California soil (or anywhere in the West, for that matter) was the day I moved here. I experienced a form of culture/environment shock for about a year&nbsp;- even the air is different out here! For the first year, I would look at the roads and driveways that wind steeply up and down the foothills and think, Man, how does anyone drive on those in the winter? Then I would remember&nbsp;- they do it the same way they do in the summer&nbsp;- with their windows down, wearing shorts and flip-flops. I love the fact that we are near a large city, near the ocean, near the desert, near the mountains&nbsp;- what more could I ask for? And yes, even though I swore it wouldn't happen to me after living for more than 40 years in places with many weather extremes&nbsp;- I now get chilly when the temperature dips below 70 and can barely bring myself to go outdoors if it's raining. However, I do NOT wear a parka and mittens when it's 65 degrees&nbsp;- a sweatshirt or light jacket will do. <br /><br />My husband and I met while attending seminary (I dropped out before finishing one semester but he got a Master of Divinity) and we got married after knowing each other for 6 months. We are quick to tell other people that we do not advise this course of action, but we celebrated our 27th anniversary this year, so I guess sometimes rash decisions work out quite nicely. So with my husband's MDiv and my undergraduate degree in religious studies, we now both work in pharmaceutical marketing research. Just what you would expect, right? I telecommute to the east coast for work each day; I'm primarily a writer/analyst. When I was in college, writing so many research papers and unable to decide what I wanted to do when I grew up, I used to jokingly say that I should find a job writing research papers. More than 20 years later, that?s basically what I do. Cool, huh? <br /><br />Our wonderful son was born when we were married just one year and a mere 15 years later our bright-eyed redhead came into our lives (okay, so she was totally bald till she was nearly 2, but she's definitely red now). 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