This easy calzone recipe features homemade pizza dough and a veggie and two-cheese filling. Dip it in zesty pizza sauce and prepare to be amazed.
Alex and I love making our own pizza, so why not calzone pizza? Wrap our best pizza dough and pizza sauce around a tasty filling, and you’ve got the best calzone recipe. Sharing half of a pizza is nice. But eating that same pizza in the form of your own personal pizza pocket—it’s even more fun! You can use any vegetables you like in this calzone recipe. Even better, use any cooked vegetables or meat that you have on hand, which is the traditional Italian way! Here are all our secrets.
What is a calzone?
The calzone pizza originated in Naples, Italy (where all the best food comes from, right?). It’s essentially a giant pizza pocket. They’re traditionally filled with cured meats, cheeses, and whatever veggies you have on hand. Calzones usually don’t have any tomato sauce in them, since you’re supposed to dunk them in sauce before each bite. (This calzone recipe has just a bit of sauce stirred into the filling for a burst of flavor.)
Calzones are folded over and crimped along the edges to seal all the fillings in. Then they’re baked until the outside is golden brown and the cheese filling is bubbly.
Tips on making this calzone recipe
How to make a calzone from scratch? Many people mistakenly believe that calzones are a tricky dish best left to the professionals at your local pizza joint. But homemade calzone pizza can be easy to make once you know a few tips!
- Use our master pizza dough recipe (or shortcut with purchased dough). The part of this calzone recipe that requires the most skill is making the dough. Our Master Pizza Dough recipe is our tried and true method, and has all the instructions you need to break down making pizza dough at home.
- Fully sauté veggies before filling. Make sure to sauté your veggies before filling the calzone. Sautéing the vegetables releases most of their liquid, so you won’t wind up with a soggy calzone.
- Don’t overstuff! When filling a calzone pizza, put in less cheese and vegetables than you think you’ll need. An overstuffed calzone will start oozing in the oven and the crust will get soggy. Overfilling it will also make it tougher to crimp the edges of the calzone closed and will make the whole process incredibly messy (it’d still be delicious though!).
Make ahead instructions
If you’re planning to make this easy calzone recipe for guests, we’d recommend making the pizza dough in advance. Our easy pizza dough recipe can be refrigerated for up to 3 days before making it, and it also enhances the flavor! This way it’s on hand the day you’re ready to start baking: you’ll just need to let it come to room temperature for about 30 minutes while making the filling. You can also make the red sauce ahead of time as well, although it’s not much trouble to whip it up while the calzones are baking.
What side dishes to serve with calzones?
How to make these calzones part of a meal? This calzone recipe is best served with anything you’d serve with pizza, really! Here are a few sides we’d recommend:
- Side salad. Some salads that would pair perfectly here: The BEST Kale Salad or Favorite Chopped Salad. Or, you could even go with Radish Chopped Salad or Beet Salad.
- Veggies & dip: Try our Healthy Ranch Dressing with an assortment of veggies.
- Roasted veggies: You’ll just need to fight over oven space! Try Garlic Roasted Broccoli, Roasted Green Beans, or Spiced Roasted Cauliflower.
This calzone pizza recipe is…
Vegetarian.
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Easy Calzone Recipe
- Prep Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
- Yield: 8 calzones (4 servings) 1x
Description
This easy calzone recipe features homemade pizza dough and a veggie and two-cheese filling. Dip it in zesty pizza sauce and prepare to be amazed.
Ingredients
- 1 recipe Best Homemade Pizza Dough Recipe or Food Processor Pizza Dough
- 16 ounces baby bella mushrooms
- 4 garlic cloves
- 6 cups (5 ounces) baby spinach leaves (roughly chopped and washed, if using standard spinach)
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 ½ tablespoons dried basil (or a handful of chopped fresh basil if in season)
- 1 cup Easy Homemade Pizza Sauce, plus more to serve (make 2 x the recipe)
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- ½ cup Parmesan cheese
- 1 egg
- Kosher salt
Instructions
- Follow the Best Homemade Pizza Dough Recipe or Food Processor Pizza Dough recipe to prepare the dough. (This takes about 15 minutes to make and 45 minutes to rest.) After kneading, divide the dough into 8 equal parts. Brush the bottom of a container with olive oil, then brush the dough balls with olive oil on all sides and place them in the container. Cover the container and allow the dough to rise 45 minutes to 1 hour.
- Meanwhile, make a double recipe of the Easy Homemade Pizza Sauce, but use ¼ teaspoon garlic powder in place of the garlic clove (so ½ teaspoon garlic in all). One cup will be used in the calzone filling, and the remainder will be used as a dipping sauce.
- Make the filling: Slice the mushrooms. Mince the garlic. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet, and sauté the mushrooms, basil, and ½ teaspoon kosher salt until soft, around 4 minutes. Add the garlic and stir; sauté for 1 minute. Add the pizza sauce and spinach and cook down until the liquid has mostly cooked out. Remove from the heat. Taste and add more salt if necessary. Stir to combine with the mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.
- Preheat the oven to 500°F.
- Working dough 2 balls at a time, place the dough on a floured surface and gently press each into a roughly 5 to 6-inch circle (it’s helpful to measure to make sure it does not get too large). On one half of each dough circle, add a ⅓ cup of the filling mixture, making sure to leave ½ inch of space around the edge of the dough. Fold the other half of the dough over so that the calzone forms a half-moon shape. Crimp the edges together using a fork (we used a large serving fork). Use a spatula to transfer the calzones to a parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat for all 8 calzones, split between two baking sheets.
- Beat the egg together with 1 tablespoon water and brush the egg wash onto the top of the calzones.
- Bake the calzones until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Allow to cool, then serve with the remaining pizza sauce on the side.
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Italian
Keywords: Easy Calzone Recipe, How to make Calzones, Calzone Recipe, Italian, Vegetarian Calzone, Vegetarian
Looking for more Italian dinner recipes?
Looking for easy Italian recipes? Here are some tasty Italian-inspired meals you should try:
- 15-Minute Gnocchi with Romesco Sauce
- Tomato Basil Gnocchi Soup
- Pumpkin Sage Stuffed Shells
- Skillet Eggplant Marinara
- Spicy Arrabbiata Sauce
- Italian Soup with Vegetables and Gnocchi
- Egg Pizza with Scallions
- Easy Marinara Sauce
- How to Make Artisan Pizza
- Perfect Neapolitan Pizza
- Our Best Vegan Pizza
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Last updated September 2019
I absolutely love this recipe :) I need to try it out, since I have tried out your Classic Tomato Sauce last week, and made my own Pizza Bread Dough too, I will definitely give this a go :)
Love your site, last time my comment did not get published. I am still new to the whole food blogging thing, but you do inspire me a lot :)
Ashrita @ Caramel Wings
Thanks! I’m glad you enjoy the blog :) I made a small update to the classic tomato sauce after making these calzone to add a bit of lemon juice at the end to smooth out the flavor a bit – let me know what you think if you try it again!
Hey there :)
Guess what, I just made my own Calzones <3 And they are DELICIOUS! I tried the alternative recipe on the comments section of your Classic Tomato Sauce and added the Lemon Juice for an extra twist. But it is safe to say that I might not be ordering for Pizzas/Calzones again!!
Unfortunately it was all gone before I could click some snaps! But the next time I make them (And I will) I will surely blogpost them!
Thank you so much for the recipe :)
Great!! So glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Wow! That looks so delicious! I love calzones, but never tried my hand at them. Bookmarking this and getting ready to just do it! :)
Great! It’s a bit of work but it pays off :) Let us know how it turns out!
would you believe that I also tried out calzones for the first time yesterday and loved the outcome- I made a simple veggie filling though- nxt on list is spinach stuffing- looks super delicious
That is such a gorgeous picture! I haven’t had a calzone in ages and that one looks delicious. I like the idea of using veggies instead of meat because it wouldn’t be as greasy. Plus its a good way to get some veggies ;)
You read my mind! I was just speaking to a friend of mine today about good recipes using spinach. I will forward this to him as this sounds wonderful!
These calzones look incredibly delicious! I am definitely flagging this for a later date. Thanks for sharing! :)
Calzones are great because you can fill them with whatever you have in the fridge! Great ‘go to’ dinner!
I love calzones, especially spinach (and artichoke too). While I have made pizza a million times, I have never made calzones. I will be correcting that shortly with the help of your recipe. Thanks!
Made these tonight with your classic tomato sauce…absolutely amazing!
Hi! could you recommend a way to swap the egg to veganize this? Wondering if you tried and had a bad outcome.
Good question! The inside does have cheese, so you’d have to do a cheese substitute. Instead of the egg wash, you can brush with olive oil!