The Gods of the Random Numbers have spoken. Loud and clear!
Fifty eight entries, and the winner is NUMBER 4! (which happens to be my favorite number, but I swear I did not mess up with the Gods of the Numbers).
Michael, please send me an email at sallybr2008 at gmail.com so I can mail your gift!
Thank you for everyone who participated, I hope to reach another milestone soon!
Do you think it would be too hard to enjoy calzones made from scratch right in the middle of the week? Trust me, it is doable with just a little bit of advance prep. First, the day before (or early in the morning), make your favorite pizza dough. Place it in the fridge. Also the day before, prepare the fillings, and reserve in the fridge, right next to the dough. When you arrive home from work, take the dough off the fridge and let it warm a little as you heat the oven. Roll the dough out, add the filling, close the calzone, and bake!
SPICY CHORIZO CALZONES
(from The Bewitching Kitchen)
1 recipe for pizza dough (click here for my favorite)
3 chorizo sausages, casings removed
1 can (14.5 oz) diced fire roasted tomatoes
1/2 Tbs olive oil
1 box (10 oz) frozen spinach, defrosted, squeezed dry
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 egg
salt and pepper
1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
egg wash (1 egg beaten with a little water)
homemade tomato sauce to serve alongside (optional)
Prepare the dough the day before or early in the morning. Place it in the fridge until dinner time. Make the filling: heat the olive oil, and add the chorizo sausage, crumbling it into pieces. Saute the sausage until it starts to get browned, drain the diced tomatoes, and add to the sausage. Reduce the heat, cover the pan and cook for 5 minutes. Let it cool, and place in the fridge.
Remove the dough from the fridge, cut it in four pieces, and turn the oven at 400 F. Squeeze as much water as you can from the spinach, add it to ricotta cheese, season with salt and pepper, add the egg and mix.
Roll out each ball of dough to a 7-inch diameter round. Add a little bit of sausage mixture, the ricotta/spinach, and grated mozzarella. Fold the dough over, pinch the edges to seal, brush the surface with egg wash. Cut three slits with a sharp knife, place it in the oven. Bake for 25 minutes until golden brown. Serve with tomato sauce and a salad, and you are all set!
ENJOY!
to print the recipe, click here
These will turn any dinner into something special and festive, and they are sooo easy to make! I used a very spicy chorizo, but the ricotta mellowed it down quite a bit. Sometimes I do not add any egg to the ricotta, but in this version I did, to make sure the filling would have a bit more body. If the filling is too liquid, the bottom of the calzone might get soggy. Of course, this is a perfect recipe to improvise, coming up with different ingredients: sautéed mushrooms, black olives, a little Gorgonzola cheese, artichoke hearts, anything goes!
I like my calzones either plain, or with a little bit of tomato sauce, but others are known to go for the kill… 😉
I am submitting this post to Susan’s Yeastspotting…
ONE YEAR AGO: Plum-Glazed Duck Breasts
TWO YEARS AGO: Holiday Double-Decker
THREE YEARS AGO: New York Deli Rye
“Don’t worry, Buck, she’ll get over it. Remember when I tried to run in the house with that big dead rat in my mouth? … The hysterical screaming, …the door banging in my face? We had to stay outside forever, until Dad came home and calmed her down. Unfortunately, he got my rat away from me, but at least Mom stopped acting silly.”
“Anyway, I told you that dropping the dead possum next to the grill when she was cooking the steak was not a good move. You should have listened to me, but now it’s too late. OK, she could have cooked it, but apparently she doesn’t like possum. “Now, we’ll be here for a while, I’m afraid.”
“I guess it doesn’t matter that the damn possum was playin’ possum and then walked away …”
Never a dull moment, folks. Never a dull moment. And I wonder why my hair gets a little more gray each day. 😉
I made this dish several months ago (we were still living in OK) but the photos were temporarily misplaced. Misplaced as in “downloaded to the wrong folder”. I stumbled upon them the other day by complete accident, while searching for a figure to include in a power point presentation. Amazing how efficiently I can mess up stuff sometimes. For those headed into the cooler months, finding eight-ball zucchini could be a stretch, but my readers in the Southern hemisphere will be able to try this recipe sooner… It is delicious!
EIGHT BALL ZUCCHINI FILLED WITH COUSCOUS AND RICOTTA CHEESE
(from the Bewitching Kitchen)
2 eight-ball zucchini
1 medium regular zucchini, cut in small dice
1 Tbs grapeseed oil (or olive oil)
1 shallot, finely diced
salt and pepper
1/2 cup Israeli couscous
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup dried cranberries
Cut the top off of the round zucchini, and carefully coop out the inside, leaving a 1/4 inch wall around to contain the filling later. Reserve the pulp. Place the zucchini on a steamer basket and steam for 10 minutes, checking after 5 minutes to make sure it’s not getting too soft. Remove from the steamer and let it cool briefly. Meanwhile, prepare the stuffing: saute the shallots in grapeseed or olive oil until translucent. Add the reserved pulp of the eight ball zucchini, and the diced regular zucchini. Saute until soft and fragrant, season with salt and pepper. Reserve.
Cook the Israeli couscous in plenty of salted, boiling water. Drain it a couple of minutes before the time stated in the package, as it will cook further during baking. Reserve.
Heat the oven to 375 F. Mix the sautéed zucchini with the couscous, ricotta cheese, and dried cranberries. Adjust seasoning with a little more salt and pepper, if needed. Generously fill the hollowed eight-ball zucchini all the way to the top and rest the cap on. You may have leftover filling, depending on the size of your zucchini. Place the zucchini in a baking dish, cover lightly with foil, and bake for 35 to 30 minutes.
ENJOY!
to print the recipe, click here
Comments: I’ve made stuffed zucchini many times, but most recipes omit the steaming, and ask you to simply fill it and bake it. When I make it that way, the zucchini never gets tender. I also tried microwaving to simplify life a little, but steaming works best. I know, I know, it’s an extra step and a couple more items to wash, but sometimes in the name of a nice dish sacrifices must be made. So I put on my Braveheart face, and steam it.
I’ve used quinoa in place of couscous, and it results (of course) in a lighter dish, but very tasty too. You can use rice, orzo, barley, farro, anything stuffed inside an eight-ball zucchini will immediately seem healthy and light. Stuffing with lasagna might be a stretch, though! 😉
ONE YEAR AGO: Grilling Ribbons
TWO YEARS AGO: Peppery Cashew Crunch
THREE YEARS AGO: Ossobuco Milanese: an Italian Classic
Can you see me doing a happy dance? Can you at least imagine me doing a very happy dance? Today the Bewitching Kitchen hit a special milestone, reaching 500,000 page views, and I’m in heaven! It seems like only yesterday the site registered the first 100 views, and had the first comment coming from someone other than close friends and family. 😉 Half a million page views! Great feeling, folks!
To celebrate, I am giving away a very special book called Jerusalem: A Cookbook, written by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. The story behind these authors is fascinating! You can read a little bit about it here. Jerusalem is more than a cookbook, it describes the complexities of different cultures co-existing, and the way they influence each other in ways that reach way beyond cooking. The recipes have that exotic feel that make your mind travel to far away places, imagining each smell and taste. So, if you would like to get this book as a gift, leave a comment in this post, and I will draw the lucky winner’s name on December 14th, which happens to be Ottolenghi’s birthday!
Thank you so much for carrying me through the milestone of half a million page views!
Bewitching Kitchen 