Spinach & Cheese Calzone

Ingredients:

• 1 pound refrigerated pre-mixed bread dough
• 1 or 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1-2 TBS olive oil
• 1/2 cup fresh or thawed & drained frozen spinach leaves
• 1 egg
• 1 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese
• 1/4 tsp salt
• freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• cornmeal or whole wheat flour for the pizza peel or pan

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees with a baking stone. Place an empty broiler tray on any other shelf that won't interfere with the calzone as it rises.
• Briefly sauté the garlic in the olive oil over medium heat until fragrant. Add the spinach leave and sauté until wilted. Drain and squeeze the spinach gently.
• Beat the egg and blend with the ricotta cheese, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Mix the spinach with the cheese.
• If you have a pizza peel, liberally cover it with whole wheat flour or cornmeal. If you don't have a pizza peel, you can use a cookie sheet with no sides or even just the back of a cookie sheet with sides. In this case, you should grease the surface before sprinkling with flour or cornmeal.
• Take your 1-lb hunk of dough (about grapefruit size) and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. The dough should stretch pretty easily, and I often do most of the stretching with my hands. You can use a rolling pin if you like. Either way, get that dough spread nice and thin on the cookie sheet or pizza peel.

• Cover half of the dough with the cheese-spinach mixture, leaving a 1" border at the edge.

• Carefully wet the border of the dough with a little water. Fold the bare side of the dough over the filling and seal the border by pinching it closed. Cut three slits in the top crust, all the way through the dough, using a serrated knife.

• If you used a pizza peel, you can slide the calzone directly onto the hot stone in the oven. If you used a cookie sheet, you will have to place the cookie sheet on the stone and bake for about 12 minutes before you can slide the calzone onto the stone for the rest of the bake time. Either way, after you place the calzone in the oven, pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler tray and quickly close the oven door. Bake for a total of 25 minutes.
• Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving to allow the filling to set a bit.

Enjoy!