Motivated by my recent puff pastry fish dinner project, I thought I could do the same type of thing with calzones. I made my own pizza dough with a bread machine, then let it set in the fridge overnight. The next day I put a few calzones together trying different techniques: using large cookie cutters, cutting with a knife, and molding by hand.

I roughly followed this recipe for the spinach filling, but I added shredded chicken. To serve, I set out a small bowl of hot marinara sauce for dipping. Delicious!

For shaping mini calzones, I would suggest using very large cookie or sandwich cutters, the cutters would make it easier to match the top and bottom of the calzone. Choose cutter shapes that don’t have fine details as well. When rolling out the dough, wait for the stretching to settle and don’t roll them too thin. This will help keep the top and bottom pieces uniform. This could be a great option for a kids birthday party!

For my two large calzones (train and the dinosaur) I just cut the shapes out with a knife. The dinosaur was an easy circle that was folded over like a traditional calzone shape, but I extended the head and tail, then added an extra string of triangles for the top, and some legs. I used an olive for the dinosaur’s eye.

Recipe

• 1 bag fresh spinach, microwaved until soft & drained
• Roughly 3/4 cup ricotta cheese
• Roughly 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 Tbsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• a few grinds of pepper
• 1 cup leftover Shredded Chicken
• store bought pizza dough, or homemade
• 1 egg beaten with a touch of water
• Marinara/pizza sauce for dipping

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375.
Mix all ingredients up until chicken, together in a large bowl. Use as filling in the prepared dough. When assembled, brush with the egg before baking for 20-25 min, or until golden brown.
Serve with marinara sauce.