Sausage and Ricotta Calzones

I had purchased some fresh pizza dough from Trader Joe's last weekend and I had been dying to use it on something creative.

Aha!! Calzones....the pizza's cousin. Easy to hold, filled with whatever concoction you can come up with and hot and gooey and cheesy.

Yup!! that's what I made. I used Chicken Italian Parmesan links, that I browned and crumbled up, combined that with ricotta, mozzarella and Parmesan cheese and Voila!

Having the fresh dough made it a little easier, but I also mixed up a packet of the dry kind-eek! Actually for calzones, it turned out fine. I ended up making 6 healthy portions from this.

You could easily put in some spinach, pepperoni, mushrooms, or whatever you like on a pizza!!

Then I made an easy marinara from the lowly can of stewed tomatoes, and it was the perfect dipping sauce for these babies!!

@sourdoughnative

Ingredients:
Fresh pizza dough
2 cups Ricotta cheese
1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese
1 cup parmesan cheese
1 tsp Italian seasoning
Salt & pepper to taste

Chicken Sausage, taken out of casing , browned and crumbled-let cool

Preheat oven to 400F.
Set pizza dough out to rest
Mix ricotta, and cheeses, add seasoning and salt & pepper to taste. Once sausage is slightly cooled, add to cheese and mix thoroughly.

Portion pizza dough to 4 pieces and roll out to about an 6-8 circle. Put about 1/3 cup of sausage cheese mixture towards one side and cover and twist to crimp the two sides together. Place on a parchment lined or silicon mat lined baking sheet.
Brush the tops with an egg wash (1 egg beaten with a tablespoon of water) and bake for approximately 30 minutes, until golden and heated throughout.

Serve with a marinara for dipping.

Easy Marinara

1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 red wine or water

Blend in a blender until smooth and heat in a small saucepan while Calzones bake.  

This recipe is featured in The Country Cook's Weekend Potluck #50