Cheesy Lasagna Calzone

So I had a friend from uni to stay this week, which automatically meant I had to up my cooking game. Manxie can be a bit of a tricky customer, and I wanted something I knew she'd really like, so when I found Oh, Sweet Basil's recipe for Cheesy Lasagna Calzones I was immediately sold. The Clan love all kinds of food, but Italian never fails to please the masses - it's the perfect combination of rich, yummy flavours and homely feel good indulgence. 

It's a really brilliant recipe, with most aspects being common sense and the extras being cheese! What's not to love?  The only thing it doesn't give you is a pizza dough recipe, but you can find that in a lot of cookbooks, not to mention all over the internet. I mean honestly, what can't be googled these days? It's definitely worth the effort, even if it does all look a bit daunting to begin with.

Once you've made the dough, leave it to rise somewhere warm. It'll say that on the recipe, but it's a really important part of the process - it  makes the dough light and springy, giving the elasticity that you'll need for a really great tasting calzone. It might sound like a bit of a pain, and it means you need to give yourself plenty of time, but it really is worth it.

The tomato sauce/mince meat combination that goes in the middle is something that you can play around with a bit more. I often like to add little extras that I know will work and go down well, so I added a few things to the sauce like peppers, mushrooms and a few chilies for a bit of an added kick. Really you can throw anything into it that you would to a standard tomato sauce, but try to minimise how wet the mixture is because extra liquid can make the next step a bit tricky.

Folding the parcels can be a fiddly, and if there's a lot of wetness coming from the sauce it can effect the strength of the dough, so make sure to drain off the majority of the juices before putting the meat in place. I find that twisting the edge of the bottom layer of dough over the top layer was the best way of sealing everything inside and preventing leakage while it was cooking, but it's really personal preference. 

I find that this also means that the finished product looks adorable. Cute little pastie shaped packets of gooey, cheesy, lovely goodness. 

Believe it or not, my instinct is to actually add more cheese when I make these again - I'm completely in favour of the stringy, melted cheese that stretches on forever when you try to pull it apart, and I found that there wasn't quite enough here to achieve that. 

I think the danger with calzones is that the fear of them leaking because they're overfull will mean you actually make them a bit emptier than they need to be. They may look like the dough will never cover them, but if you've let it prove for long enough it will stretch. There's no harm in doing having less - they'll still be yummy little taste sensations, but in this case, less is not more. More is more, and more is fabulous. 

Ingredients

- half a pound of mince

- 1 chorizo ring (you can buy pre-cubed chorizo, which is sometimes cheaper and would save some effort)

- 2 teaspoons olive oil

- 1 15 ounce can of chopped tomatoes 

- 1 teaspoon of sugar (may sound weird, but it's amazing what a difference it makes)

- half teaspoon of salt

- half teaspoon of italian seasoning (I combine separate Italian herbs like oregano, basil and parsley, which ends up being more than half a teaspoon, but that's ok - it's difficult to have too many herbs)

- 1 cup of ricotta cheese

- 8 ounces of fresh mozzarella, cut into slices

- 1 egg

- half cup parmesan cheese

- 1 and a half pounds of pizza dough

Method

- Preheat oven to 220 degrees centigrade

- Heat a frying pan to a medium to high heat and add oil

- Once hot, brown the mince and the chorizo, breaking the mince into small pieces as it cooks 

- Once it's brown, add the tomatoes, sugar, salt and Italian seasoning or herbs, along with any extras you're putting in like peppers, mushrooms or chili

- Bring the mixture to the boil, and then reduce to a simmer. After about 7-10 minutes, once the liquid has reduced, transfer the mixture to a bowl to cool

- While the sauce is cooking, prepare the dough

- Cut the dough into six equal pieces and roll each one into a circle on a floured surface. You could transfer it straight onto grease-proof paper at this point as getting them onto baking trays while they're empty is much easier

- On each circle of dough, spread two heaped tablespoons of ricotta onto one half. Cover this with a heaped quarter cup of the meat sauce mixture and then top with two pieces of mozzarella  

- In a small bowl mix egg and 1 tablespoon of water

- Brush mixture around the edges of the dough circles and then fold them in half, sealing the edges securely. Make sure they're really tight - this is where the twisting, method I mentioned comes in handy

- Brush the tops with more egg wash and sprinkle with a little parmesan cheese (I'll admit that I actually missed this stage out and regretted it later - it's the reason mine aren't all shiny)

- Cut one small slit in the middle to let out steam during cooking

- Place on a parchment lined baking tray and bake for 10-15 minutes until golden-brown

Serve, eat, enjoy