5 Kasım 2012 Pazartesi

Spinach and Jalapeno Chicken Sausage Calzone

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The almighty calzone!
     Calzones are popular in Italy and America.  In Italy, there are many regional variations of calzones.  Some contain no cheese and some contain only meats or vegetables.  In Italy, calzones are small and they are more like a sandwich that is easy to handle while on the go.     In America, the small Italian sandwich style calzones can be found in authentic Italian markets, pizzerias and restaurants.  Small sandwich style Italian calzones are good street vendor items.       Italian American style calzones that are on pizzeria, delicatessen and restaurant menus usually have a ricotta cheese, mozzarella and parmigiana mixture as the base of the filling.  A good Italian American calzone is larger than the sandwich style calzones in Italy and they are big enough to be shared by 2 to 4 people!       The standard cheese calzone is by far the most popular calzone in America.  Sometimes more than one pound of cheese goes into a large calzone!  I used to buy huge cheese calzones for a nice price at a busy Italian pizzeria in Florida and it took me 3 to 4 days to finish eating one of them.  Back then, I rarely cooked at home after cooking professionally at busy restaurants.  Whittling away at a calzone in the fridge was one of life's simple pleasures at home.     A stromboli and a calzone are two different animals.  A stromboli has very little cheese and the filling is almost all meat.  A stromboli is usually a long cylinder or tube shape.  A calzone is mostly cheese and any other ingredient is usually just added for flavor.  For example, an Italian American sausage calzone usually only has a few slices of sausage added for flavor and the bulk of the filling is ricotta cheese.  Calzones are usually crescent moon shaped instead of cylinder shaped.     I was a little bit under the weather today, when I made this calzone.  I had one of those really bad desert sinus headaches that would not quit.  Anybody that lives in the Mojave desert can express how bad these headaches can be.  I was going to use the ricotta cheese mixture to make some fresh stuff pastas, then I thought that making a calzone would be easier to accomplish, since I couldn't concentrate on much of anything.  As it turned out, the calzone in the photographs above burst at the seam, because I did not seal the seam tight enough.  Even so, the calzone turned out nice!       When under the weather from illness or a headache, Italian food has a way of making oneself feel better.  Italian food seems to work like chicken soup for those who are ill!  The calzone that I made was definitely large enough to be shared by two.  I was very hungry and ate the whole thing, but it took me nearly 5 hours to accomplish that feat!  I really felt better after snacking on this calzone!       The calzone made for a nice afternoon of casual snacking on my day off, after working five nights at a French restaurant.  This day of snacking for hours on a big calzone really brought back memories of my old days in the Florida restaurant business.  A calzone kind of has a way of making a person relax and get lazy, whether they like it or not.  A calzone is great if there are no busy plans, because it weighs a person down like a big holiday turkey dinner! 
     Salsa di Pomodoro Recipe:       This recipe makes about 4 or 5 portions of sauce!     Heat a pot over medium/medium low heat.     Add about 5 to 6 ounces of olive oil.  (The olive oil proportion should be about 1/10 of the volume of the tomatoes.)      Add 8 cloves of finely chopped garlic.     Add 1/2 cup of finely minced onion.     Saute till the onions turn clear in color, but do not let the onions brown.     Add 1 pinch of crushed dried red pepper.     Add a 28 ounce can of good quality imported Italian crushed plum tomatoes.     Place a 28 ounce can of imported whole Italian plum tomatoes or San Marzano tomatoes that are packed in their own juices into a mixing bowl.       Hand squeeze and crush the tomatoes, till no big chunks remain.     Add the hand squeezed tomatoes and juices to the pot.       Add 4 pinches of oregano.     Add sea salt and ground black pepper.     Add 1/4 cup of finely chopped fresh basil.     Add 2 tablespoons of minced Italian parsley.       Add 1 cup of Italian dry red wine.       Heat the sauce and stir, till it starts to gently boil.     Reduce the temperature to low heat.     Leave the pot uncovered.  (Never cover a pot of Italian tomato sauce with a lid, or the sauce will become stewed tomatoes!)       Slowly simmer the sauce and stir the sauce once every 5-7 minutes for 4 hours.       The sauce should be simmering gently and there should be very little bubbling on the surface.  Scrape the sides of the inside of the pot back into the sauce too.  That stuff is full of flavor!       After 4 hours, the flavors will meld and the tomato sauce will become a medium thin tomato sauce consistency.  The excess tomato juices should be reduced into the sauce at this point.  The olive oil should be well combined with the tomatoes, because the sauce was stirred often.     Keep the sauce warm over very low heat or reheat the sauce to order.     Note:  For a very smooth salsa di pomodoro, allow the sauce to cool, then run the sauce through a hand turned food mill into a container.  Some people like a smooth Italian tomato sauce! 
     Pizza Dough Recipe:       If you have dough making experience, then this will be easy.       High gluten flour is best for this recipe, but bread flour can be used.  Pizza dough is focaccia dough or Italian bagette style bread dough.  No oil in the mixture will produce a dough that is like many Italian breads that are not enriched with fat or French baguette bread dough.  Many pizzeria chefs do not add oil to a pizza dough and that is correct pizza dough too.       Focaccia style doughs require enrichment with fat.  Olive oil is a fat!  Oil strengthens and elongates the gluten strands of the dough.  It only takes a very small amount of oil to produce a nice texture.  The elastic gluten strands give pizza dough the ability to be stretched and tossed in the air!     Add 2 tablespoon of fresh yeast or 1 tablespoon of dry yeast to 16 ounces of tepid luke warm water in a mixing bowl.      Place the mixing bowl in a luke warm place like on top of a warm oven.     When the yeast activates, add 2 teaspoons of sugar to proof the yeast.      Add about 2 cups of flour.     Add 2 teaspoons of sea salt.     Add 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil.     Stir the mixture with a spoon, till a very loose wet dough is formed.     Start adding a little bit of flour at a time,while stirring, till a loose dough is formed.      Add a little more flour at a time, while mixing with your fingers, till the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl.      You will be able to feel when the dough is starting to get elastic.  It will stick to your hands when made correctly, but that will change after rising twice.     Add flour, while hand mixing, till the dough can pull away from the sides of the bowl.     Cover the dough in the mixing bowl with a dry towel.      Set the bowl on top of an oven in a luke warm area, with a second towel underneath the bowl to protect the dough from too much heat.      When the dough rises more than double, beat it down with your knuckles and gather the dough like a ball in the bowl.      Cover the dough with a towel and let it rise again.     When it rises the second time, beat the dough down and knead firmly with your hands for 1 minute.     Place the dough on a floured counter top.     Roll the dough into a large ball.      Cut the dough ball in half for two medium size pizzas portions or into four portions for mini pizzas.     Roll and tuck each dough portion with with your hands to make smooth dough balls.      You can cover and refrigerate each dough ball for a few days or freeze the dough portions for later use.
     Tre Formaggi:     This recipe make enough for 2 medium size calzones or 1 large calzone!  Never add salt or pepper to tre formaggi or the delicate "sweet" flavor of the ricotta cheese will be lost!      Place 15 ounces of ricotta cheese in a mixing bowl.     Add 3 ounces of finely grated parmesan cheese.     Add 5 ounces of grated mozzarella cheese.     Add 1 tablespoon of minced Italian parsley.     Add 1 whisked egg.     Mix the ingredients together.     Chill the tre formaggi mixture in a refrigerator. 
     Jalapeno Chicken Sausage:     Cook this kind of sausage at a low temperature,just like cooking a German white veal sausage, so it stays white in color.  Pre made jalapeno chicken sausage can be found in most grocery stores.       Place a 4 to 5 ounce jalapeno chicken sausage on a lightly oiled roasting pan.     Bake the sausage in a 275 degree oven, till it becomes fully cooked, but not browned.     Allow the sausage to cool to room temperature.     Cut the sausage into thin slices and set them aside.
     Spinach:     Heat a saute pan over medium/medium low heat.     Add 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil.     Add 1 minced garlic clove.     Add 2 handfuls of spinach leaves.     Add sea salt and black pepper.     Toss and stir the spinach, till it wilts.     Place the spinach in a bowl and allow it to cool to room temperature.     Place the spinach in a fine mesh strainer and squeeze out any excess juices.     Set the spinach aside.
     Spinach and Jalapeno Chicken Sausage Calzone:     This calzone is big enough for two portions!      Lightly dust a countertop with flour.     Place a pizza dough portion that is large enough to make a 14" round pizza on the floured countertop.       Roll the dough out to a 14" round flat pizza shape.     Brush a pizza pan lightly with blended olive oil.     Place the flat round pizza dough on the pizza pan.     Place 10 ounces of the tre formaggi across the middle of the dough.     Place the jalapeno chicken sausage slices on the cheese mixture.     Place the spinach on the sausage and cheese.     Fold the dough in half, to create a half moon shape.     Pinch the seam edge together tightly.  (If the seam edge does not want to seal for some reason, then brush the seam edge with water or egg wash, then start pinching the seam edge together.)     Bend the calzone, so the calzone takes on a crescent moon shape.     Brush the calzone with olive oil.     Bake in a 450 degree oven, till the calzone turns a golden color and till the dough is fully cooked.     Transfer the calzone to a serving platter.     Serve with a bowl of the salsa di pomodoro.
     A nice tasting big calzone and bowl of Italian tomato sauce for dipping is great for casual weekend dining.  Enjoy a lazy relaxing day, after munching on a big calzone.  Yum!  Ciao Baby!  ...  Shawna  

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