Everyone Around the Table

We’re pizza freaks in my family. If my children had their way, they would have pizza at least five nights a week. I compromise at one day a week, usually Fridays, when I can make homemade pizza and use leftover tidbits from the week’s meals to make something interesting, tasty and to clean out the fridge in the process.

Most weeks, I make pizza dough from scratch which is actually really easy if you have a food processor. I’m also partial to the dough Whole Foods makes, both in white and whole wheat versions, packaged and ready to go for around $3. It’s easy, tastes great and has a lovely crusty-chewy texture for any toppings I put on them. If you want to make dough from scratch, there are many good recipes out there. I am partial to the one from Cuisinart which I only change to use half white flour and half whole wheat.

Pizza
If you are making pizza, roll out the dough into something resembling a circle (if it’s irregularly shaped, call it “rustic”!)  Slather on some pizza sauce (there are many good store-bought ones) or some pesto for a change. Then add your toppings and cheese and voila – pizza in about 30 minutes.

Calzones

If you want to try something new in the pizza family, try a calzone. To make a calzone, use your favorite pizza dough. Divide the dough (you can get a couple calzones out of one pizza dough) and roll each piece into an oblong shape. To save space on the baking sheet, I place half of the oblong onto the sheet and hang the other half over the edge. Add sauce and toppings to the half resting on the baking sheet and then fold the other half over and pinch the edges together to seal everything in. Since my kids only like pepperoni and sausage, I have been known to cut up broccoli, zucchini or yellow squash very small and mix it in with the meat. In a closed-up calzone, they won’t see any tidbits of healthy stuff. Use a fork to poke a couple holes in the top for venting.

Calzone of love
Recently, because my husband and I were going to have the same calzone fillings, I tried something new and made a giant calzone which was basically a piled-high pizza with another pizza crust laid on top and the edges pressed together. Then I brushed olive oil around the edges of the crust of my pizzas or on top of the calzones.

Make it personal
What started as an attempt to differentiate whose calzone was whose, has become a special little way to personalize everyone’s calzone. I create each family member’s initial or some other design by pricking the dough with a toothpick. Not only does this leave the design but it allows steam to vent during baking. Click on the pictures below to see the “N” I put on one child’s calzone and the heart I put on the one my husband and I shared. Let me hear you say, “awwwwww”.

Bake your pizza or calzone according to recipe recommendations but keep in mind that calzones have to bake longer than pizzas since they are so thick.

Our favorite way to enjoy homemade pizza or calzones is to have a Family-Room Picnic with a big blanket on the floor and a movie on TV.  Good pizza. Good times.