Upgrade your next pizza night with homemade mushroom and fontina calzone, packed with sautéed mushrooms and 3 cheeses for a perfect blend of flavors and textures.
Alex and I have been on a HUGE homemade bread kick since we first started baking bread at home about 6 months ago. We’ve made everything from artisan loaves to beer cheese bread to sandwich bread to bagels, and I couldn’t even tell you the last time we purchased a loaf of bread at the grocery store. Now when I say ‘we’, I mean Alex makes the dough and bakes the bread, and I join in when it’s time to taste test and eat the bread. But we’re both really enjoying the process – which is way easier than I’d imagined – and the end result is always delicious!
Naturally this love of homemade bread dough has quickly transitioned to a strong desire for homemade pizza dough. I’ve been making homemade pizza dough for a long time, but this new-found appreciation for homemade dough has inspired me to up my pizza game. This has led to some pretty epic homemade pizzas, and I’ve become especially fond of homemade calzone. If you’re a crust lover like me, calzone gives you double the crust (!!) with the added bonus of being able to stuff it full of whatever deliciousness you desire!
For my latest creation, I combined one of my favorite pizza toppings – mushrooms – with an assortment of cheeses. The mushrooms get sautéed with butter, garlic, basil, and red pepper flakes to bring out their flavor and add a subtle hint of spice while retaining their texture (no soggy mushrooms in our calzone!). Then we’ll stuff the sautéed mushrooms into our pizza dough with 3 cheeses:
- Mozzarella – for classic meltiness
- Fontina – for added earthy flavor that complements the mushrooms perfectly
- Ricotta – for creaminess
The resulting mushroom and fontina calzone is an amazing blend of flavors and textures that will elevate your next pizza night!
[recipe title="Mushroom and Fontina Calzone" servings="8 (4 calzones)"]
INGREDIENTS:
for the pizza dough (makes about 2 pounds of dough):
1-⅜ cup lukewarm water
1-½ tsp. active dry yeast
1-½ tsp. sugar
1-½ tsp. salt
⅛ cup olive oil
3-¼ cups all-purpose flour
for the calzones:
3 T unsalted butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
16 ounces cremini mushrooms*, washed and sliced
½ teaspoon dried basil
¼ teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
salt and black pepper
yellow cornmeal
12 oz. mozzarella cheese, shredded
8 oz. fontina cheese, cubed
6 oz. ricotta
DIRECTIONS:
make the pizza dough:
In a large bowl, combine the water, yeast, sugar, salt, and olive oil. Add the flour and gently mix using a wooden spoon.
Cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap so that some air can escape. Let the dough rest at room temperature for 2 hours. The dough will rise and then flatten out on top. Refrigerate the dough for 2 hours before making the calzones.
make the calzones:
In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add minced garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until garlic becomes golden brown, about 1 minute. Add mushrooms to skillet and stir to coat in butter. Add basil and red pepper
flakes and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Stir. Sautée the mushrooms, stirring occasionally, until they become browned and slightly tender, about 4-5 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and set aside.
Sprinkle cornmeal onto two baking sheets. Set aside. Preheat oven to 450°F.
Divide dough into 4 equal portions. On a well floured surface, roll out the first portion of pizza dough into an oval about ⅛-inch thick. Gently lift the rolled out dough and transfer to one side of one of the baking sheets with half of the dough hanging off the edge of the baking sheet.
Sprinkle ¼ of the mozzarella cheese onto the side of the dough on the baking sheet, leaving a ½-inch edge. Top the mozzarella cheese with ¼ of the sautéed mushrooms (being careful not to include any of the liquid from the bottom of the skillet). Top the mushrooms with ¼ of the fontina cubes. Add small spoonfuls of ¼ of the ricotta cheese around the fontina cubes.
Fold the other half of the dough up over the calzone filling so that there is not empty space where the dough folds and so that the edges meet. Fold the lower edges up over the upper edges and press down to create a seal. Carefully press along the entire edge using the tip of your finger to ensure the seal is secure. Use a small knife to cut 3 slits into the top of the dough so that the calzone can vent as it cooks.
Repeat this process - rolling the dough, adding the filling, and assembling the calzone - 3 more times to create a total of 4 calzones. You will have two calzones on each baking sheet.
Bake the calzones, one baking sheet at a time, at 450°F for 20-22 minutes or until the crust becomes golden brown. Let the calzones sit for a few minutes to allow the cheese to settle before slicing and serving.
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge. Reheat chilled calzones on a baking sheet in a 400°F oven for 15-20 minutes before serving.
*Cremini mushrooms are sometimes also called “baby bella” mushrooms at the grocery store.
Pizza dough recipe adapted from The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.
[/recipe]
P.S. We love this book for easy-to-follow bread recipes with lots of helpful tips and explanations of the science behind bread baking to help you create a perfect loaf!
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