Ham, Ricotta, Onion and Baby Bella Calzones

Calzones-4 servings

Dough-I mixed up in my Zojirushi on the dough setting. Just put in liquids first and do the yeast last.  If making dough by hand, proof the yeast by placing it into 2/3 cup of warm water with the sugar and letting it sit for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, mix flour with salt, make a well in the center and add the yeast mixture, oil, and the rest of the water. Mix well and knead for about 10 minutes. Shape in to a ball and let rise for 1 to 1.5 hours in a covered bowl in a warm location. This is a gorgeous dough which pretty much comes from Linda Fraser's book entitled Vegetarian the best-ever recipe collection. I've modified the procedure a bit since I doubled the recipe and used white whole wheat flour, plus she says to let it rise in a floured bowl. I never do that with dough so left that out, but feel free to do it if you don't use a bread maker. Also, I baked in a 400 oven for 25 minutes, but Linda Fraser's original recipe said 425 for 15-20 min, but she did very different fillings (sauteed veg). I felt the time mine cooked was good for the onions and mushrooms which went in raw.

Dough ingredients:

1 1/3 cup water

2 TBSP olive oil

big pinch of sugar

2 tsp salt

4 cups white whole wheat flour

Filling: when the dough has about 20 minutes left, start assembling all of the filling ingredients so you are ready to roll when the dough is finished.

In a medium sized bowl, mix 1 cup ricotta cheese well with 2 eggs. Add about 2/3 to 3/4th lb ham roughly chopped (I used ham off the bone lunchmeat), 1 lb fresh style mozzarella cut in to chunks, and several turns of the pepper mill. Add a few shakes of parsley as desired. Thinly slice about 1/2 of a large onion and do nothing to the Baby Bella's. Use about 1/4 cup for 2 calzones (eye ball it--grab a handful and place how many you want on your zoney's). Have these sitting aside ready to grab and pile in your dough after the next step. (I put 2 pepperonis in two of our calzones since that is what we had and the kids wanted it)

When the dough is ready, divide in to 4 equal sized portions. Roll each in to a round and place 1/4th of the cheese filling on each round. Top with ham, onion and mushrooms. Feel free to add other spices as you like. Fold over so you make a half circle, and use water on the inside edge of the bottom half as the glue to seal the edges. Crimp with your fingers. Brush the top of each calzone with beaten egg or just an egg white beaten. I sprinkled the top with a little sea salt next. Make a small vent in the top of each at the high point of each calzone.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 25 minutes and when removed, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese or another Italian cheese that you like. Mine did stick a little to the baking stone, so next time I will probably sprinkle some corn meal on the stone first.

Dip in to any marinara sauce. I used Wegman's smooth marinara tonight and everyone LOVED these. They were real calzones, my husband said :).