Experiment 4 - The Selection

And we're back the Hartford Courant, but this time we have a date.

This is the "Recipe Exchange" column from Wednesday, June 6, 1990.  It was on page E4.  One reader had requested a calzone recipe that had appeared in the Courant's Northeast magazine (last seen in my first experiment, the tomato soup), and three readers came through.  One of the respondents says, in a quote that hits close to home, "found the recipe I was looking for, between three recipe boxes and several hundred stacks of [clippings that were] ripped and torn out of magazines and newspapers ..."  Hmmm, yes, I know about the stacks.

Apparently the ultimate source of the recipe is Tony and Lucille's, a restaurant on New Haven's famous Wooster Street.  

We're going to start with Calzone Dough

1 package of dry active yeast
1 cup warm water (about 115 degrees F)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour

To the best of my recollection, I've never made anything that has to rise (except bread in my bread machine), so this is going to be interesting.

Then I've got my choice of Cheese and Proscuitto Calzone or Spinach and Sausage Calzone.  I love me some spinach, so let's hit that one.

Calzone dough
1 pound fresh spinach, steamed, well-drained and chopped
2 sausages (hot or sweet) cooked and sliced thinly
1 pound ricotta cheese
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
Salt and pepper to taste

Oh what the heck, might as well include the other ingredients list too.  Looking ahead to the actual cooking instructions, the basic technique is "roll the dough into a circle, combine the stuff, put equal portions on each piece of dough, fold, bake", so if anybody is following along at home, and prefers prosciutto to spinach, I've got you covered.  Obviously more specifics will be provided after Saturday.

Calzone dough
1 pound ricotta cheese
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
12 thin slices prosciutto
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Olive oil

Note that the dough recipe yields enough for four shells, and the fillings provide enough to make four calzones each.  I'll be making no more than two.  Quite possibly I'll make one of each; it depends on the quantities of ingredients I can find at the grocery store.

The column also includes a recipe for tomato sauce.  I'm am probably going to skip that and just use a jar of Trader Joe's marinara, because I love that stuff.  If I get crazy and decide to make sauce, I'll throw in the whole recipe in this weekend's post.