Filled with cheese, bacon, pepperoni, Italian sausage, and mushrooms this folded half-moon stuffed pizza is a showstopper!
From a Certified Pizzaiola
Pizza is not just a food group with me but it’s my life. It’s what launched my company.
Having multiple pizzerias in my family, pizza sauce ran through my veins. It’s my desert island food and yes, I make and have pizza every single day.
So needless to say, I know pizza and calzones.
Grab Your Ingredients
It all starts with an amazing pizza dough. My classic pizzeria dough is the best there is!
- Cheese
- Meats – pepperoni, cooked Italian sausage crispy bacon
- Veggies – mushrooms (yes you can leave them out for full meat lovers)
- Pizza Sauce
Make The Calzone
- Thirty minutes before baking (and the dough is ready), place a Pizza Stone on the lower third rack or invert a metal pan and place it on the rack. Preheat the oven to 500F for at least 30 minutes.
- Stretch one of the pizza dough balls (do not use a rolling pin) into a 12″ round circle
- Place some of the cheese on half of the pizza spreading it out to within 1/2” of the edge.
- Next, place some of the pepperoni, bacon, sausage, and mushrooms spreading it out evenly to the edge.
- Ladle some of the sauce but do not go to the edge.
- Fold, pull, and gently stretch the top of the dough to cover the ingredients.
- Lightly press the edges together and crimp the edges to seal shut. To crimp is to decoratively fold the edges of it, slightly overlapping the folds to create a rounded border. Cut a few small vents into the top of the calzone.
- Bake on the lower rack where the pizza stone or inverted pan for 8-10 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. *If you would like the top to be a bit browner/crisp, move the cooked calzone to the last minute to the middle rack. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before cutting otherwise, you run the risk of all of your filling oozing out.
What would you add into your calzone?
Ultimate Meat & Mushroom Lovers Calzone
Filled with cheese, bacon, pepperoni, Italian sausage, and mushrooms this folded half-moon stuffed pizza is a showstopper!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 2 calzones
- Category: calzone, leftover pizza dough, meat lovers, pizza night, stromboli
- Method: oven
- Cuisine: calzone, leftover pizza dough, meat lovers, pizza night, stromboli
Ingredients
- 1 – 16 ounces Best Pizza Dough, divided in half
- 4 cups shredded provolone/mozzarella cheese, divided
- 8 ounces sliced pepperoni
- 10 slices of crispy bacon, rough chopped
- 2 cups cooked Italian sausage, rough chopped
- 2 cups sliced button mushrooms
- 2 cups pizza sauce
Instructions
- Follow the instructions on making the Best Pizza Dough.Thirty minutes before baking (and the dough is ready), place a Pizza Stone on the lower third rack or invert a metal pan and place it on the rack.
- Preheat oven to 500F for 30 minutes. In addition, have a rack in the middle of the oven as well.
- If using the pizza stone or inverted pan, stretch out the dough and place on flour & semolina dusted paddle. If you don’t have a paddle stretch out on a flour & semolina dusted parchment paper.
- Stretch one of the dough balls into a 12” round circle of even thickness. Place the dough on your pizza screen or paddle.
- Place 1 cup of cheese on half of the pizza spreading it out to within 1/2” to the edge. (you’ll be folding the dough in half so only place the cheese on the half below where you would fold it – think crescent moon).
- On top of that place 4 ounces of pepperoni, half of the bacon, 1 cup of sausage, and 1 cup of mushrooms spreading it out evenly to within 1/2” to the edge of the dough.
- Ladle 1/2 cup of sauce over top ensuring you do not go to the edge. You need the edges kept clean to seal. Top with 1 cup of cheese.
- Fold, pull, and gently stretch the top of the dough to cover the ingredients.
- Lightly press the edges together and crimp the edges to seal shut. To crimp is to decoratively fold the edges of it, slightly overlapping the folds to create a rounded border.
- Cut a few small vents into the top of the calzone. You need to let the steam from the filling escape otherwise it will explode in your oven.
- Bake on the lower rack where the pizza stone or inverted pan for 8-10 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. *If you would like the top to be a bit browner/crisp, move the cooked calzone to the last minute to the middle rack.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before cutting otherwise, you run the risk of all of your filling oozing out.
- While this is cooling, make the second calzone with the remaining ingredients. *note only use 1/2 cup of sauce in the 2nd calzone. Save the rest for dipping.
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