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This Italian Calzone is exactly like your favorite pizza shop. This easy calzone is filled with sautéed mushrooms, squash, lots of cheese, flavorful marinara sauce and then baked until puffy and golden brown. This is easy to throw together. Pair it with my Best Caesar Salad and Tiramisu for the most delicious dinner.
They’re heavenly little creations. I’m not sure who invented them but they are glorious! Like gigantic hot pockets filled with cheesy goodness. Make them for your next pizza night!
Calzones aren’t thought to be authentic Italian (I personally think of them as Italian-American) but they are absolutely authentic Italian, along the lines of Cannelloni and Pasta al Limone.
Ingredients You’ll Need for to Make Italian Calzones
- Pizza dough – You can make your own OR you can pick it up from a local Italian restaurant or grocery store.
- Pizza sauce – Pizza sauce is thicker and more cooked down than, say, a marinara sauce for pasta. I love Rao’s Pizza Sauce.
- Fillings – For this recipe I used squash and mushrooms. I wanted to go the veggie route, but feel free to fill it with whatever you like. I included some variation ideas below.
- Cheese – You can’t have a calzone and not add some cheese. I added some mozzarella. But feel free to do a mix.
For the rest of the ingredients, please see the recipe card below!
How to Make an Italian Calzone
- Grab your homemade or store-bought pizza dough. Roll it out into a 9-inch round on a lightly floured surface. I did this using my hands and a rolling pin.
- Preheat oven.
- Fillings! I used sauteed cremini mushrooms, tomato sauce, diced squash, caramelized onions and mozzarella.
- Add it to the pizza dough. You’re only adding the fillings to one side of the pizza dough.
- Flip over the one half of the pizza dough. I did a terrible crimp action so do your best. Brush the top with olive oil.
- Cut a hole in the top. And then transfer it to the oven to bake for about 20 minutes. I lined my baking sheet with a sheet of parchment paper. If you like, you can skip it and use cooking spray.
- No need for egg wash. I decided to skip egg wash because this is not a pastry! 🙂
Variations
Ricotta and Spinach. A classic combination is ricotta, wilted spinach and mozzarella cheese.
Buffalo Chicken. Hear me out. This is not traditional. Think of it like a Buffalo Chicken Pizza in calzone form.
Meat Lover’s. This one is inspired by my Meat Lover’s Pizza. Add in cooked Italian sausage and pepperoni, along with ricotta and mozzarella. Yum.
Recipe FAQs
It’s like a gigantic empanada but made with pizza dough and filled with everything from pepperoni, sausages, veggies, cheeses and tomato sauce.
Calzone is a half moon-shaped cheese and sauce filled piece of heaven. It comes from Naples, Italy and is a popular street food, due to the fact that it’s easy to eat while standing and walking. Stromboli comes from beautiful New Jersey! Strombolis are shaped like burritos, while the former is half moon-shaped.
More Cozy Recipes To Make
Dinner
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Desserts
Limoncello Tiramisu
Game Day
Beer Battered Onion Rings
Italian
Fried Calamari
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Italian Calzone Recipe
Equipment
- 1 (half sheet) baking sheet
Ingredients
- Olive oil
- 1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced
- Pinch kosher salt
- 1/2 cup butternut squash, cubed
- 1/2 cup broccolini, trimmed
- 1/2 cup cremini mushrooms, sliced
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
- 1 (12-ounce) batch of store-bought or homemade prepared pizza dough
- 3 tablespoons jarred marinara sauce
- 1 (4-ounce) mozzarella ball Or 4 ounces shredded mozzarella
Instructions
To Make the Filling:
- In a medium skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add thinly sliced onions and pinch of salt. Cook onions for 30 minutes, or until onions are browned and caramelized.
- While the onions are cooking, pre-heat oven to 400F. Place cubed butternut squash on a baking sheet and toss with a teaspoon of olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 15 minutes, or until soft. Remove and set aside.
- When onions are caramelized, add broccolini and cremini mushrooms and sauteé for 5-10 minutes. Add garlic to the top and cook just until fragrant.
To Bake the Calzone:
- Lightly flour your work surface and roll out pizza dough to a 1/8-inch thick circle. Transfer pizza dough to a piece of parchment. Add the tomato sauce to one half. Top with broccolini/mixture. Add the butternut squash and then finish it off with a few slices of mozzarella.
- Fold dough in half, over filling, and crimp as desired to seal. Transfer parchment with calzone to a baking sheet. Using a knife, slice a hole in the top. This will allow steam to escape as it bakes. Place it in the oven and cook until dough is puffed up and golden brown, 15-20 minutes.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I have never even heard of calzones! Even my spell check is freaking out! This looks absolutely delicious! I MUST make this!!
I saw this post a few days ago and thought it was a great idea so the boyfriend and I walked up to the market and got all kinds of yummy vegetables and such to make calzones with. We cheated and used pre-made dough, but it was still delicious! We used tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini, pineapple, onions, garlic, mozzarella, and ricotta. And then he put sausage in his and I put pepperoni in mine. We also put some chopped up garlic in olive oil and spread it on the crust before baking. Its been two days and he still can’t stop talking about how delicious it was. We even saved the leftover filling (we made way too much!) and turned it into pasta sauce. Yum! 🙂 Thanks for the inspiration.
I love this whole thing. So glad to have been a glimpse of inspo for you and your dude. YAY!
This was so delicious!!! And quite easy. I substituted roasted sweet potato for the squash and added some balsamic vinegar to the pan with the onions when they were done caramelizing. Will definitely make again! I also left the sauce out of the calzone and dipped the finished calzone in sauce instead.
LOVE.
I made a calzone based on your recipe. It’s simple and pretty bomb.
Makes me want to order me from pizza hut now! But. Would like to ake ths one day. Thank you!
I’ve never made a calzone, but this recipe looks fairly simple! made me real hungry now. 🙁
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This looks yummy! Quick question – do you think it would work with a non-yeast dough?
I actually think it’ll work! It obviously will just turn out flatter and thinner. But I bet it’d be delicious!