Random moosages as I see fit.

Remember when I made a bunch of no knead pizza crust and only used half of it on some mini pizzas?  I ended up using the other half to make calzones because I’ve always wanted to try and make calzones.  And also Stromboli.  I think I’d really like to make Stromboli some time too.

Anyway, I ended up making four calzones over a couple of days.  They were pretty good.  I stuffed them with the last of my tomato sauce, shredded mozz, onion, green bell, mushrooms in two of them, mild Italian sausage, and fresh basil.  I didn’t use any egg or water to help hold the crimped edge.  The dough was sticky enough already.  I generally find this to be the case when I make the dough as opposed to using something store bought.  I did use an egg wash over the top of the calzones.  They came out a beautiful golden brown and they smelled so good.

In the first two calzones, I didn’t use a lot of tomato sauce or cheese.  As a result, I didn’t think it tasted pizza-y enough for me.  It was just a stuffed bread roll.  So, the second batch, I made the top and bottom layers sauce and cheese and it was better.  It also made those two calzones gigantic.  I had a little trouble trying to get them closed without ripping a hole in the dough.

I don’t know if I would ever consider myself the pizza queen no matter how much free pizza I received.  Or how much pizza I ended up making…

I recently acquired a bunch of 5″ tart pans.  And by a bunch, I mean six.  Normally, I would use tart pans to make tarts, but I noticed that someone had once said that they used mini tart pans to make individual sized pizzas.  As obviously, I must try that out.  But also, I thought this would be a good time to stock up the freezer a little lunch/dinner options when I don’t have the time or inclination to cook and also don’t want to deal with eating out.

Using Jim Lahey’s no-knead dough recipe as stated, a half recipe is enough to make pizza crust for six mini pizzas.  I topped them with onion, green bell, mild Italian sausage, low moisture mozz, fresh basil, and tomato sauce that I made with a bunch of colorful grape tomatoes because I had to get rid of them (with an immersion blender and not a food mill because tomato skins don’t bother me).  And then I popped them directly into the freezer.  Because I already made dinner for that day.  For long term storage, I took the pizzas out of the tart pans after they froze through and put them in gallon freezer bags.

I did have one for dinner the other day.  I put it back into a tart pan and then onto a sheet pan and threw it in an oven preheated to 425degF for about 30min.  The crust ended up being nice and crisp at the edges and had a nice chew in the middle.  I think I’ll make a bunch more of these and stick them in the freezer.  It helps me with portion control, which is very difficult for me when dealing with pizza, and means I’ll have something relatively quick to eat on days that I can’t deal with making food.  And I don’t have to buy back up frozen pizzas anymore.