Roasted Cherry Tomato Calzones with Basil Marinara Sauce

You can stuff calzones with any pizza topping ingredient. In this recipe, I choose to roast sweet cherry tomatoes with olive oil and sea salt. Along with mozzarella, that was my main ingredient. Simple but delicious. For the sauce, I made a basil marinara sauce which lent a bright, fresh flavor to the calzone. It’s not necessary to use fresh mozzarella in this recipe, either. Not that it wouldn’t work, but it doesn’t melt as well, and will cost you twice as much for the amount you’d need to buy.

Ingredients:

one batch of pizza dough, divided into fourths; I LOVE the recipe on Julie Jams, available here
1 bundle or container of cherry tomatoes
olive oil
sea salt
¾ -1 lb. mozzarella cheese, grated

Basil Marinara Sauce Ingredients:

A word of caution: I didn’t measure these ingredients exactly… Feel free to adjust as you see fit.

one large bunch basil, about 2 cups, roughly chopped
3 fresh tomatoes, roughly chopped
large spoonful of tomato paste
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
olive oil, about 3 tbsp.
fresh ground pepper
salt to taste

Guidelines:

Make your pizza dough several hours before you plan on using it. It will need time to rise.

Heat your oven to 400 degrees. Place cherry tomatoes in a roasting pan and drizzle with olive oil. Roast for about 10 minutes, then sprinkle the tomatoes with sea salt just as they begin to burst. Roast tomatoes for another 15-20 minutes, or until they have completely burst. Once the tomatoes have come out of the oven, keep the oven on to this temperature to bake the calzones.

In the meantime, prepare your basil marinara sauce. Combine all of the sauce ingredients except for the tomato paste into a blender or food processor and blend until relatively smooth. Transfer to a small sauce pan, add tomato paste, and heat on medium-low heat. Stir until the tomato paste is incorporated. Keep warm while calzones cook. You will use the remaining sauce for dipping.

Grate the mozzarella.

Once the dough is ready to be worked with, divide it into four equal parts. On a lightly floured surface, stretch the parts into relatively round shapes.

Over the entire circle, spread a thin layer of the basil marinara sauce.

On one half of the circle, place a mound of cheese. Place about 5 cherry tomatoes on top of the cheese, then top with more cheese.

Fold the other half of the dough over the stuffed half and press the edges shut. Prick several times with a fork so it will release steam and not burst. Sprinkle top with sea salt.

Repeat for each calzone. Makes four large calzones.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.