It's Been a While

Back in college, I got hooked on a delivery place for (usually) late-night post-drinking munchies. D.P. Dough made several different kinds of calzones. My favorite was the Buffalo Zone (later renamed the Buff Zone, for reasons beyond my understanding). It was, unsurprisingly, a calzone stuffed with buffalo chicken. I ordered that much more often than I care to remember.

Now, I'm nowhere near a D.P. Dough, and I've yet to find a place that sells a calzone that matches it. One of the upsides of cooking for yourself is you can make something just the way you want it. Back when we were still in Chicago, that's exactly what we did. 

Usually, Stacey takes point on the calzones. But Stacey went back to Liverpool today, so I'm left on my own. Helpfully, Stacey left some dough behind from the pumpkin pizza she made last week, so I had all I needed to make a calzone on my own. 

Wow, OK, this picture's not as good as I hoped. In front is a ricotta mixture, with some mozzarella, an egg and some seasonings - crushed red pepper, garlic salt, basil and oregano. In the middle is the dough. And in back is some chicken I cooked on the stove top, brushed with some hot sauce. 

Spread out the dough and spread some of the ricotta mixture down before you place the chicken. I added some more hot sauce to it, then repeated with the ricotta and the chicken. Fold the empty half over the top and pinch it shut, or fold up the sides to avoid leakage (we had a nasty incident here the second or third time we made calzones in Queens. It was very messy). 

You can, of course, substitute any other stuffing to the calzone. Stacey usually throws in some veggies in hers - peas, mushrooms, etc - while I stick to the chicken because I'm unoriginal. 

With the over preheated to about 350 degrees, put the calzone in the over for 8-10 minutes. Once it's done, cut it in half, grab some sauce (I used bleu cheese dressing) and enjoy.