#spinach calzone

SPELT SPINACH CALZONE

Why just eat pizza all the time when you can have a healthy calzone?! This one is made with whole spelt flour and really good! It is also perfect for you to bring to work in your lunch box! (Recipe found on Sorted Food)

Ingredients

For the dough:

1 tsp of caster sugar

1/3 block/lump of yeast

warm water (240ml)

plain flour (160g) + extra for dusting

whole spelt flour (200g)

pinch of salt

For the filling:

cherry tomatoes (200g)

1 shallot

1 cloves of garlic

a glug of olive oil

a squeeze of paprika paste

a handful of spinach

grated mozzarella (25g)

feta (50g)

pinch of nutmeg

pinch of pepper

1 egg, beaten

Recipe

Mix the flours, with the crumbled yeast, warm water and a generous pinch of salt.

Flour a surface and tip out the dough to knead it for about 10 minutes until smooth then transfer to a bowl.

Cover with a tea towel and leave it for about 1 hour, or until doubled in size.

Chop the cherry tomatoes and finely dice the shallot and garlic.

Heat the oil in a pan and chuck in the shallot and garlic to soften slightly before adding the tomatoes and the nutmeg/ pepper.

Squeeze in the paprika paste and add the spinach to let everything cook out and the spinach wilt.

Preheat an oven to 200ºC.

Flour a surface again, cut the dough in half (You can now either chill or freeze one part!). Roll out half of the remaining dough into a thin circle.

Spoon half of the tomato filling into the middle of the dough, then scatter over some mozzarella and crumbled feta.

Fold the dough over to create a half moon shape and seal it by crimping the edges with a dab of water. Repeat with a second one and lay both on a baking tray before brushing with beaten egg.

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the dough has browned and puffed up. 

And there you have it: a healthy and vegetarian alternative to a normal pizza/ lunch: SPINACH CALZONE!

I hope you like this recipe and give it a try. Maybe make it, next time you would like to prepare your lunch for work!?

And as always: Be happy with what you have created and enjoy!

A half-pound sack of spinach is no joke. I know, because I had one in my refrigerator for the past week thanks to my local CSA.  It seemed like an insurmountable quantity requiring a serious plan of action. Every day, I would open my refrigerator and stare down that mountain of green stuff taking up half of the second shelf. It was intense, and I almost gave up. Finally, I came up with two options: salad for a month or spinach calzones. 

It was not a difficult decision. 

Calzones are like folded and stuffed pizza pockets. You can fill them with tomato sauce and cheese, cooked ground meat, and sausage, but I like them best with spinach. They are meant to be rustic, the type of food you eat with your hands, so don't worry if yours aren't perfectly even or if a little cheese oozes out of them while baking in the oven.  They'll still be really good.

The amazing thing about spinach is that it cooks down to nothing. The four cups I had left in the sack after using some for a weeknight salad or two cooked down to just half a cup in a few minutes.

My family always adds a pinch of nutmeg to greens and cheese. It's weird, but it makes lasagna, ravioli, and these spinach calzones taste just a little bit better. It's kind of a secret, so don't tell anyone I told you. 

Ingredients (makes six small calzones):

1 ball of pizza dough

1/4 cup of flour

4 cups of raw spinach ( or 1/2 cup of cooked or frozen and defrosted)

2 cloves of garlic

1 and 1/2 cups of part-skim ricotta (15 ounce container)

1/4 cup of grated parmesan or pecorino cheese

1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes

a pinch of nutmeg

2 - 3 tablespoons of olive oil

Make the dough:

Follow the recipe for pizza dough and let rise in a bowl for at least an hour, until doubled in size. Coat a large wooden surface and a rolling pin with most of the flour.

Place the dough on the board, sprinkle the remaining flour on top, and roll out with the pin until the dough is about a quarter inch thick and measures a 12" by 18" rectangle . To ensure even thickness, rotate the dough on the board and flip over from time to time. 

Cook the spinach:

(Skip this part if you are using frozen or cooked spinach): Heat 1 - 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan over medium heat along with the red pepper flakes. Add the spinach and cook, tossing frequently, until the spinach has wilted completely, about five minutes. Let cool.

Regardless of the type of spinach you are using, make sure to wrap it in a towel or paper towels and squeeze out the excess water. 

Make the calzones:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Finely chop the garlic and add to a bowl along with the spinach, ricotta, grated cheese, and nutmeg. Mix well to combine the ingredients for the filling.

Cut the dough in half length-wise and then cut each half into thirds, so that you have six evenly -sized squares. Measure a heaping quarter of a cup of filling onto each square of dough. 

Fold the dough over the filling and then fold, crimp and braid the edges so that each resembles a half-moon. Repeat for the remaining five.

Put the calzones on a baking sheet and brush with one tablespoon of olive oil. 

Cook in the oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Rotate the pan in the oven and cook for another 25 minutes, until the calzones are golden brown. Let cool at least ten minutes before eating. Freeze some for later.