David and I love pizza. And when I say love, I mean we’d eat it regularly if it were a little healthier for us. The other problem is, I eat gluten-free. David, the angel he is, has been very accommodating to my weird dietary needs and also very willing to explore alternatives to traditional pizza crust. This past weekend we decided to have a ‘lazy’ day watching movies (The Lord of the Ring since I’d never seen it) and make pizza.
We’ve done this before using Bob’s Red Mill GF Pizza Crust Mix. I know, I know. I’m a country girl now. I should be making the crust from scratch. Well, here’s the thing. Why making something from scratch if it’s just as good coming out of a bag? Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the idea of making everything from scratch but this pizza crust happens to be extremely good and plus, it was our ‘lazy’ day. If there was a pizza joint in Newberg, OR that served GF pizza, we’d probably would have just ordered it.
As we began to prepare the dough I suggested making calzones instead. I love calzones almost as much as I love pizza. It’s like a little pocket full of surprise whenever you bit into it. So calzones it was…
The problem today was David and I wanted slightly different toppings, or insides if you will. David wanted it to be pretty simple. Pepperoni, salame, olives, mozz cheese, and his homemade tomato sauce. Me on the other hand, I wanted the whole shebang. Pepperoni, salame, olives, mozz cheese, pepporchinis, and jalapenoes and David’s magical sauce.
Okay, this should be easy. We’ll just make TWO! And that is exactly what we did.
We began by following the directions on the back of the bag. When the dough was ready, David made his homemade special sauce. It’s a secret. I could tell you but then you all know what that means…
David making his homemade special sauce
Okay, I’ll tell you…
Can of tomatoes, few cloves of garlic, olive oil, fresh basil, salt and pepper
David rolled out the dough because I was having difficulties doing it myself (I’m still learning how to be a true country girl after all) and began putting on the fixings.
We baked the calzones until the tops were golden brown. About 25 minutes or so. When finished, they needed to cool for about 10 minutes before we could devour them.
About to go in the oven
Just out of the oven
And then...we ate
I recently had a prepared Calzone from Costco – a little disappointing. I think making them from scratch is much better – can control whats goes into it, healthier, fresher, just tastes great. Thanks for sharing.
This looks amazing! Like the comment above, I too like making things from scratch since I can control what goes in. And I can then feel healthier and less guilty about eating nearly an entire pizza. Glad you were able to make it gluten free too!