Why grandpa, what big feet you have: calzones

Annalena knows you all know the jokes about what having big feet means. Let her tell you: in her experience, the only thing big feet mean is that the gentleman (or gentlewoman) in question, needs big shoes. And big socks. And that is our hook for today's post.

Calzones: know what calzone means? BIG sock. Yes, indeed. "un calzo" is a sock in Annalena's mother tongue, and whenever you add an "one" to the end of a word in that tongue, it means a BIG version of what you began with. So, "minestrone," is a big soup . And it is. Compare that, of course, to "ino," which makes everything small. So, if the man had small feet, he'd need calzino.

See how much you learn, and see how clever Annalena is, in leading you to the new item to discuss?

Ah, you know not how lucky you are.

Annalena has wondered about including this recipe because, to her, making a calzone is just an extension of making a pizza. Yet, when she speaks to people who know how to make pizza, of making calzones, eye get bigger, mouths form the "oooooo" shape, and there's total amazement.

Ragazzini , it is not difficult. Let us proceed.

First, you do need pizza dough, and by the miracle of computer technology, go to:

http://annalenacantacena.blogspot.com/2012/03/bit-by-bit-putting-it-together.html


to get Annalena's pizza dough recipe. The dough for one pizza will result in enough for two, massive calzones, which everyone will say they cannot finish, but will anyway, or four normal sized oned. The Guyman and Annalena had these last night, and while they sat there saying "it's too big" they ate them anyway.

No comments, ragaccio ("accio": add to make something bad: parla: word parlaccio: curse). Capisce?

So you have that dough, and of course, just as with the pizza, you will need to heat your oven to 500 degrees. While that is happening, we will be making a filling. Here is the one that Annalena made last night, but please play with this recipe. There are so many ways one can make a calzone.

Farmers have caught on that in thinning their crops, they can sell the resulting thinnings to customers. Indeed, farmers have begun thinning, and that means that green garlic, one of the Guyman's favoritest things on the face of the earth, is now available. If you do not have this, then use scallions, or leeks, or any member of the onion family that is too immature to have "bulbed." You will be finding spring onions, for example.

Anyway, chop up about a cup of your chosen alium, white and green part, and saute' it in about a tablespoon of butter or olive oil. Saute' at a gentle heat: don't let the stuff brown. Then pour it into a bowl, with a cup each of fresh ricotta, and diced mozzarella cheese. If you are making a calzone with something like sausage, the smoked variety may be called for. For green garlic, however, given its delicacy, some plain old buffala is what you want.

Mix this all together, and then taste for salt and pepper. You will probably want some of each. Put this aside now, while we prepare the calzone crusts.


Take that dough, and divide it into as many portions as you see fit. Roll them out, and instead of going for a perfect circle, go for an ellipse, or oval. Now, let us address the issue of the filling. Eyeball portions of it: if you are making two big calzoness, eyeball half. If four, quarters. And so on, and so forth.

It may seem to you , as it should, that when filling a circular/oval piece of dough like this, the thing to do is to put the filling right in the center. Not so. This will make it very difficult to close the critter. What you want to do is put it in the first THIRD of the dough, closest to you. Leave a good half- full inch on the borders. If this means heaping up the filling, so be it. Then, take the portion with no filling on it, and fold it over the filling. Press the pieces together. You can do this by hand, but it works much better if you use the back of a fork, and it also leaves a pretty little pattern.

If you have time, leave the calzones to rest for an hour, maybe two. When you're ready to bake them, prick a few holes in the top with a fork. If you like, you can beat up an egg, and spread that as a wash over the calzones before the pricking, but this is absolutely unnecessary.

Move the calzones into the oven, and bake for about fifteen minutes. They will not puff up much (your pizza dough didn't, did it?), and you will wind up with something rather delicious and , if you are serving people who are used to eating pizzas, something they will regard as "special."

One WARNING here, amici. Unlike pizza, which is exposed, calzones are sealed, so all that hot steam has accumulated. Some has gotten out of the holes, but not all, and the filling is ridiculously hot. And as you have mozzarella in here that has melted....

You do understand that Annalena cares for you and does not want you to burn yourself, don't you? Try to restrain yourself for a good ten-fifteen minutes while the calzones cool down. Then, especially if you have made the larger ones, go at them with a knife and fork.

With some greens and a salad, this is an informal meal that does not feel like one.

You are now empowered to make dinner calzones, fruit calzones, breakfast calzones, and so forth. You may very well find out that you prefer these to pizza.

And no one will care how big your feet are.