Calzoni are essentially turnover pizzas frequently produced because of their portability. Like pasties, they make a perfect lunch time feast as they are easy to enjoy on the go without risk of unsolicited spillage. However, though the inherent cleanliness of calzoni is beyond question, it is not their most arresting feature. As you’re likely aware, surprises often produce some of the most exciting and pleasant occurrences in one’s life. Breaking into the soft, golden shell of a calzone is one such event and witnessing the ingredients ooze from their man-made cocoon is, in all instances, more gripping that merely having a flat, though admittedly delicious, pizza thrust under your pecker.
The potential fillings for calzoni are as varied as the possible toppings applicable to their rather more two-dimensional brothers. According to tradition they ought to be filled with the leftovers of the night before and sent out in order to sustain the breadwinner. This course of action would be the most frugal, but should there be no leftovers the recipe below is a great approximation. Whatever filling one intends to stuff one’s dough with, be warned; make sure it isn’t too wet, for moisture may well prove to be the demise of even the most meticulously produced crust.
Goat’s cheese and caramelised red onion is a match made in heaven; they are at once both sweet and savoury and suit each other equally in terms of flavour. Combinations such as this are perfect for use in calzoni, simply because they work best when everything is thrust together in a less than organised manner. Indeed, when choosing between a calzone and a pizza consider how the flavours might work together; would order be best, or is culinary chaos the most advisable course?
For this recipe I’ll leave you to make your own pizza dough, though if you value my advice you’ll follow Jamie Oliver’s stunning recipe as it produces truly incredible bread. One can see from the photo below just how light and fluffy the dough has the potential to be – just make sure to knead it for at least 10 minutes!
p.s. My oven glass “blew up” when making these – luckily the neighbour cooked them. However, my oven is definitely out of action.
Red Onion and Goat’s Cheese Calzone {recipe}
Makes 8
Ingredients:
• 4 red onions, roughly chopped
• 240g goat’s cheese
• Salad leaves – rocket, watercress etc
• A sprig of fresh rosemary
• Pepper
Method:
1. First, prepare the dough and get it rising. Then, start making the tomato sauce according to the linked instructions.
2. Pour a little olive oil into a heavy based pan and add the red onions – cook until soft and browned (30-40 minutes) – be careful not to let them catch. Tip them into the tomato sauce and mix thoroughly.
3. Heat the oven to 220C. Divide the dough into eight portions, knock back and roll out one at a time adding a dollop of the red onion mixture, 30g of cheese, a handful of salad leaves and a few leaves of fresh rosemary as you go.
4. Fold each “pizza” in half, like you would a pasty, and crimp the edges so each calzone is completely sealed. Place on floured baking trays and cook for 15-20 minutes until golden brown and piping hot. Serve immediately or save in the fridge for a couple of days.
Cost: This recipe makes 8 calzoni, which is plenty of food for the same number of people. However, if you’d like to, each recipe is extremely easy to halve which is great if there aren’t that many of you. Remember that dough can be frozen for later if you’d like to make a full batch for later use.
These are fairly basic, vegetarian calzoni and should set one back no more than around £7 for a batch of eight. Enjoy!
101 replies on “Red Onion and Goat’s Cheese Calzone”
Oh, no! Your poor oven! The calzones do look amazing though. 🙂
Indeed… it’ll soon be back. thanks!
These look delicious!!!
These looks fantastic! Wow – really yummy. Sorry about your oven though …
Thanks! Yes, but it’s getting fixed on Friday!
I’ve been thinking of making calzone’s lately…..thanks for inspiring me! http://www.redwinefinefood.com
Wwo Looks yum.
I make a chicken, cream cheese and hot sauce version. http://fromscratchclub.com/2011/07/25/pizza-week-feeding-teenagers-w-doughboys/
Always glad to get new stuffings since I don’t particularly like the mushroom/onion filling I made. Thanks.
Calzones for dinner tonight 😀
Lucky you – my oven’s broken!
🙁
This looks so delicious I am literally drooling… and now I want to make this!
You must!
Okay, I wasn’t hungry a few seconds ago, but this recipe certainly did open my appetite! I love calzones…
Haha – sorry!
Oh goodness, how lovely! Love love love, especially the goat cheese stuffed so generously inside.
Thanks, Amanda – it’s pretty cheap stuff, but really yummy!
Goat cheese is actually one of the more pricey cheeses around our parts of the world. I know I would use it more if it weren’t. Cheese has become so expensive in Canada that people have started stealing it, like cheese robberies, not just regular shop lifting!!
That’s a shame! haha, that’s crazy – things must be bad!
this looks so good!!
Oh it was, it was!
I absolutely adore calzone, and the filling for this sounds really fabulous. I hope you manage to get your oven fixed soon!
Friday, hopefully!
I will forgive you your flagrant “showing off” regarding that succulent morsal of goat’s cheese practically being given away by the establishment that you purchased it from for this recipe. Steve is totally and utterly enamoured by calzone and at the moment, would eat them every night if I chose to be a slave to the oven. I don’t choose so he has to make do with his irregular batches of heaven. Your recipe looks like a fantastic hiatus for my recipe and something that Steve might just twitch with delight over. Cheers for sharing your take on the humble Italian pasty and your’s looks (dare I say it)…just about as good as mine! 😉
Haha – dreadfully sorry. It’s good stuff too, some of the best I’ve tasted. I make enough dough for 8 pizzas/calzones at a time, so it’s really easy to make more (when one has an oven).
You know how people make “frypan pizzas” (not that I would know… 😉 )? I wonder if you could apply that technique (if, indeed, it can be called a “technique”) to cooking calzones? Might be an interesting experiment to try and would result in something more like a filled flatbread…crumpets cook in a frypan why not calzones?
Hmmm – I’m unsure! I’ll have a think… Calzones are definitely more cumbersome.
I just made a sourdough pizza base and I am converted! Something new to explore 🙂
My culture is on the go!
Excellent! I hope you mean culture as in “sourdough starter” and not as in “U.K. stiff upper lip and Pip Pip old chaps” or we might yet get a skinhead frugal post yet! 😉
Indeed… 😀
The pictures look breathtaking !
Love the taste of calzone, I have always made it with feta, but I am really going to try goat cheese 🙂
Thanks so much! The only thing with feta is it doesn’t melt that well. then again, neither does goat’s cheese.
Love this calzone. The sauce looks so delicious!
It was really delicious!
These look cracking, im wacking them on the menu next week! cheers
Let me know how you like them!
yum!! these look delicious!! gotta love portable pizza..
Absolutely… even if I usually eat them stationary.
Sorry about your oven. The calzone looks delicious.
Getting fixed on Friday – thanks!
Your photographs are amazing!
That is a fine lookin’ dish….
It was fine tastin’ too!
I wasn’t sure about the lettuce leaves but once I saw it put together, it looked quite tasty. I haven’t made pizza dough in a while and this might be a good excuse.
They work very well actually 😀
Just the sort of thing I’d order, looks great. Brilliantly presented too.
Sorry to hear about your oven! The colors in your calzone are amazing.
Your photography, recipes and stories are fantastic fine sir! I’ve only just stumbled upon your blog so I’m looking forward to delving though your archives. I was also a pretty impoverished student back in the day… I mostly lived on chips and gravy, sandwiches, that kind of thing (too busy studying to experiment). Makes you appreciate food in whole new way when you can finally afford it (like goat’s cheese! I’m now obsessed with the stuff!). Following you from now on 🙂
Thank you so much, Laura – just checked your blog out, it looks lovely!
The Calzone is a favorite at our house. I love the idea of onions and goat cheese. I have milk goats and I am always looking for great recipes.
So jealous of your goats, I hope to get some one day! Enjoy.
Your calzone-folding skills are top-notch. I’d say it was worth blowing the oven over these :).
Oh yes, I agree!
Oh look at the texture of that dough! And the filling? Deliciousness! So sorry for your oven, thank you neighbors for helping out our frugal friend 🙂
Hehe- thanks! They were nice and light. The oven is back!
Hallelujah!! Let’s make some nice cake then – with some coconut maybe? 🙂
I love calzone! Would much rather have disorganised deliciousnss than order any day 🙂 I loved how big the chunks of cheese were as well.
Hehe – indeed! Not too big though, still frugal 😀
Beautiful calzone – the right balance of not too dry and not overly filled! Lovely dough recipe from Jamie Oliver and commiserations on the oven 🙁
Thanks! The oven is well again!
So cheap, so wonderful. And the photos are Beautiful. I’ll be following your recipes more closely now that we’ve got a house mortgage…Ugh. You wouldn’t happen to have a good recipe for bean burgers would you?
Many! Search the recipe index!
I love Jamie Oliver’s pizza dough, it’s a favourite in our house, it’s so simple and produces the nicest dough ever. I’ve never thought to try calzones though, I know what I’m doing this weekend.
It is truly spectacular dough – I agree.
I gave calzones a go at the weekend and loved it.
Everytime I make pizza though I just can’t seem to roll it out thin enough and I end up with 4 inch thick pizza, have you got any tips?
Fantastic! Haha. Umm… Persist! 😀
Wow, I love calzone but have never made it. This is really inspiring!
Thanks, Sofia! Try it, it’s simple.
Wow, I can almost taste it from those beautiful pictures! Can’t wait to try this!
I’ve never seen a calzone look so pretty before. Awesome recipe!
Thanks 😀 Glad you think so.
These look fabulous. Goat’s cheese and red onion is unbeatable. I’ve never made calzone though I have made homemade pizza, but I think you’re right about the fun of cutting into it – might have to branch out!
You should – it’s so simple!
Wow! This looks amazing! I feel another reblog coming on if it is fine for you?
A masterpiece! Calzone and your presentation. 😀 … Fae.
Anything inside baked dough is delicious. Can’t wait to try the recipe when NYC gets hit with snow this weekend.
can’t wait to try this recipe, it looks awesome!
yum! this looks amazing, the colours are striking. Hope you get your oven back running soon (I know it was like losing a leg for the 2 weeks I was without mine).
Thanks! It’s all ready back!
Carmelized onions and goats cheese go together better than peanut butter and or maybe jam on a Welsh cake. Brilliant and so is your photography. Take care and please save me a piece. BAM
People put jam on Welsh cakes?!
YUM 🙂
Amazingly delicious looking recipe. Thank you.
Very yummy looking. The pictures are gorgeous. Hopefully it won’t take long for your oven to be fixed. I’ve never heard of that happening before!
Thanks so much! It’s done now!
That might well be the most gorgeous calzone I have ever set my eyes on! I love the fillings you chose, and Jamie Oliver’s pizza dough is my favorite as well. As if the pictures and recipe weren’t enough, your writing captures it all perfectly! 🙂
Wow, thanks! I’m glad you think so. Also, I don’t usually feature the recipes of others, but his dough is perfect!
Freaking fabulous, my friend! Sad to hear about your oven, but glad you’ve such a kind neighbor! What a great flavor profile (and some really fine writing!)
Indeed! Thanks so much! it’s back in action now.
Gorgeous! I really like your table too, by the way…beautiful wood!
That’s my chopping board – the table is horrible 😀
Looks fantastic! Sorry to hear about your oven though, hope its back in action soon.
It already is!
[…] http://frugalfeeding.com/2013/02/05/red-onion-and-goats-cheese-calzone/ […]
These look so delicious. I absolutely can’t wait to make them. Actually, I wish I didn’t have to wait another second! Thanks!
Reblogged this on Thriftyveg and commented:
We used this recipe last night. Our results were not quite as pretty but tasted great!
What a knockout! Terribly sorry about your oven though. It does seem you’ve got it repaired/replaced now, right?
All sorted and fully functional – just like me.
beautiful!! i want to eat it directly from the comp screen
I advise against it… 😀