Easy Peezy Recipe: Calzones

If you're like me, you watch Ina or Emeril or Giada on The Food Network and think, "Man - I'm going to make that. But when dinner time comes, you have neither the patience, skill or $78 for ingredients. So I like to cook simple things that taste good, and I'll tell you about them here.

Last night I made calzones. And please, for the remainder of this post, when you read the word "calzones," do so with an Italian accent and kiss the tips of your fingers.

For the recipe, all you need is:
Refrigerated pizza dough, like from Pillsbury
Pizza or spaghetti sauce
Mozzerella cheese (the 2% skim works fine)
Any kind of toppings you like (I used turkey pepperoni, green peppers and onions)
An egg
Garlic Powder
Wine to drink while you wait for the calzones to bake

1. Preheat your oven to whatever it says on the dough tube (425, I think). Roll out your dough onto a cookie sheet covered in foil and Pam'd. Cut it in half and pat one side of the dough down some. You don't want the underside of your calzone super thick, because it'll come out of the oven still doughy. Spread just a little of the pizza sauce and a handful of cheese on one half of each piece of dough, like so:
(P.S. - The prescription bottle in the picture is for Molly. Just wanted everyone to know that I'm not popping pills while cooking. That would not make Giada proud.)

2. Add all your other ingredients and top with just a little more cheese for "glue," like so:
3. Make a little pouch by folding the empty side of your calzone over the ingredients. Pinch all the edges with a fork, and make little slits in the top of the dough so the steam can come out. Brush an egg white over the top (so they come out all pretty) and sprinkle some garlic powder over that, like so:4. Pop the pan in the oven for approximately 25-30 minutes. My oven runs a little cool, so mine cooked for 28 minutes. And here's the thing - to avoid the underside being doughy, you need to cook these longer than you think. When the top is golden brown, the underside is probably still doughy. So resist the urge to take them out just yet. Mine looked like this, and the underside was perfect:
5. Eat them. I paired mine with a salad.
I tried to figure out the calorie count in mine, going by the "toppings" I used, and if you eat half of one of the calzones (which is a big portion - I brought a third of the other one for lunch today), you'll have around 460 calories. If you cut each one into thirds, each piece will have about 305 calories. And the total cost for all the ingredients for this recipe was about $12.

Cook some calzones and let me know how they turn out! Giada would be proud.