Call me nuts but I've been craving slightly cooler weather. Mostly because a lot of my favorite meals go really well with cooler temperatures. I've been craving sauce and meatballs and thought this recipe would work perfectly as I stumbled upon it while re-reading the May 2010 issue of Everyday Food. I had whole wheat pizza dough in the freezer. Just had to make some turkey meatballs. Overall, this meal was pretty simple.
The recipe suggests using sausage meatballs. I used my standard turkey meatball recipe but any would work just fine. I'm keeping this recipe in mind when I have plenty of leftover meatballs! It's a great way to get several meals out of one main dish!
- Extra-virgin olive oil, for baking sheet and brushing
- 10 ounces baby spinach
- Coarse salt and ground pepper
- All-purpose flour, for work surface
- 1 pound store-bought pizza dough (thawed if frozen), cut into 4 equal pieces
- 8 meatballs, halved, and 1 1/2 cups sauce
- 8 ounces fresh mozzarella, torn into pieces
- 1/2 teaspoon red-pepper flakes (optional)
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Lightly oil a rimmed baking sheet. In a large saucepan, bring 1/2 cup water to a simmer. Add spinach and season with salt; cover and cook until wilted, about 2 minutes. Transfer spinach to a fine-mesh sieve and drain, pressing with a rubber spatula to release as much liquid as possible. Transfer spinach to a cutting board and roughly chop.
- On a lightly floured work surface, roll each piece of dough into an 8-inch round. In a medium bowl, stir together spinach, reserved meatballs and sauce, cheese, and red-pepper flakes (if using). Season with salt and pepper. With a slotted spoon, divide mixture among bottom halves of dough rounds, leaving a 1-inch border. Fold top half of each round over filling and roll and pinch edges to seal. Carefully transfer calzones to baking sheet. Brush tops lightly with oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake until calzones are golden brown, 15 to 18 minutes.
