Frank's Spinach & Meatball Calzone Recipe

Serves 1-2

A note: Pizza stones are awesome and if you’re trying your hand at homemade pizza, you really should invest in one. They hold a nice, uniform temperature, and the porous stone sucks up any residual moisture, so the crust crisps up beautifully. A cookie sheet works, too–just not as well.

Another note: Purchase dough from your favorite pizza place. It’s the best-easiest cheat possible, and any spot should happily sell you a batch.

Ingredients

Pizza dough (8 oz if you’re purchasing from, say Osteria Marco, who specializes in individual pizzas, and 18 ounces if it’s from a family-pie type spot, like Anthony’s. Or you could try your hand at a homemade batch like this one in Food and Wine)

• 2 cups ricotta
• 1 cup fontina
• 1 cup spinach, blanched or frozen and defrosted, or raw if you don’t mind a bit of a soggy mess
• 2 chopped up meatballs (frozen from the supermarket, or from that delicious batch you made from the live tutorial on the Luca icookbook)
• ¼ cup parmesan cheese (plus 2T for dusting)
• 2 T extra virgin olive oil
• Tools: Pizza stone or cookie sheet; pastry brush, spatula

Process

1. Heat the oven and the pizza stone to 500˚
2. Use your fingertips to gently stretch the dough into a 10” circle. Set the circle onto a very lightly floured surface
3. Place all ingredients on half the circle, then fold the dough over the top to create half moon.
4. Seal the edges of the moon together by slightly wetting your fingertips, then roll the crust between your fingers, crimping slightly as you move along the semi-circle.
5. Brush the top with olive oil and dust with parmesan. Set on the pizza stone and bake 15-20 minutes, or until the crust is a bubbly golden brown.

To Serve

1. Remove with a fat spatula and cut in half. Present with forks and lots of paper towels. I think a fine Colorado beer or a good sauvignon blanc is a must here.