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Easy Calzones Recipe

This Easy Calzones Recipe is perfect for family dinners! Customize your homemade calzone with all your favorite ingredients.

Image of a Homemade Calzone

Homemade Calzones

Mmm.. Calzones. Calzones bring back lots of memories. I split a calzone for two on one of my first real dates. It was safer than splitting the spaghetti and risking a Lady and the Tramp moment. Calzones were one of the first dinners I made for Kevin after we got married, and probably the first meal I served for our first guest in our first apartment.

I actually picked this recipe up in a speech class in college. We were to give a five minute demonstration as we were speaking and one of the cute college boys demonstrated how to make these calzones. Unfortunately, he never made them for me, but luckily I did come away with the recipe. I figured if they were easy enough for a college guy to make, I could definitely handle it. This recipe is super quick and easy and very, very yummy. It makes enough for 3-4 people. Or two very hungry college boys.

Here are the ingredients…

easy calzones recipe blog

How to Make a Calzone

Spread the dough on a baking sheet.

easy calzones recipe blog

And roll it out  thin and flat.

easy calzones recipe blog

Now start adding the toppings to one side of the calzone. I start with half of the browned sausage. Be sure to leave about an inch all the way around for when you close up the calzone.

easy calzones recipe blog

Then cheese…

easy calzones recipe blog

And some pepperoni…

easy calzones recipe blog

A little more cheese…

easy calzones recipe blog

Then the other half of the sausage…

easy calzones recipe blog

Then, uh, more cheese…

easy calzones recipe blog

More pepperonis…

easy calzones recipe blog

And finally, the last of the cheese.

easy calzones recipe blog

Now grab the other half of the calzone…

easy calzones recipe blog

And fold it over.

easy calzones recipe blog

Pinch the edges together real good.

easy calzones recipe blog

Melt 2 tbsp of butter and brush it over the top of the calzone.

easy calzones recipe blog

Then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Until it’s all nice and covered in buttery cheesiness.

easy calzones recipe blog

Put it in the oven and bake at 375 for about 25 mins or until the top is golden brown. Like this:

Look at all that layered goodness.

easy calzones recipe blog

Now if you happen to have some pizza sauce on hand, which I did, leftover from the Bagel Bites, you can put some in a little bowl for dipping. When the calzones had about 8 mins left to cook, I stuck the little bowl of pizza sauce in the oven with the calzones to let it get all nice and warm. When it came out, I sprinkled it with a little more Parmesan cheese. Yum. And tasty. And easy!

And just like with the Bagel Bites, you can use any of your favorite pizza toppings you want. Mushrooms and Beef? Chicken and green peppers? Sure!

It just so happens that this is one of the first recipe scrapbook pages I ever made too. :)

Note: I’ve experimented with the cooking temperature/times over the years, and have found that the one posted here in my blog works the best. So be sure and use that and not the one on the scrapbook page. :)

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Image of a Homemade Calzones

Easy Calzones Recipe

  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 25 minutes
  • Total Time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: 4 calzones 1x
  • Category: Dinner
  • Method: Oven
  • Cuisine: American

Description

This Easy Calzones Recipe is perfect for family dinners! Customize your homemade calzone with all your favorite ingredients.

Scale

Ingredients

  • 1 can Pillsbury Refrigerated Pizza Dough
  • 1 lb Italian sausage
  • 1 pkg pepperonis
  • 2 cups shredded cheese
  • Parmesan cheese
  • 2 tablespoon butter

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
  2. Brown and drain sausage. Spray a rectangular baking sheet with Pam, and then roll out pizza dough thin and flat. Make layers of cheese, sausage and pepperoni on one half of dough, until desired amount. Fold the other half of the dough on top of the meat and cheese, and press edges together with a fork.
  3. Melt the butter and brush over the top of the calzone, then sprinkle parmesan cheese over it.
  4. Bake at 375 for 25 mins or until top is golden brown.

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25 Responses
  1. Brittany

    Made these for dinner tonight…delicious! And it was a lot bigger than I expected coming out of the oven. I’ve made at least four or five of your dinners/desserts since we moved into our apartment a month and a half ago. They make me feel like a chef without necessarily having to do all the hard work. :)

  2. Mindy

    This may be a silly question, but…I have never used this dough before, i don’t have a baking stone, do I need to grease the pan first to prevent them from sticking?! Thanks for your help!! Making these tomorrow and can’t wait!!

  3. Hollie

    I love how you show off your pampered chef items while baking! This recipe looks super easy and yummy. Thanks! :)

  4. Jenni

    Who knew calzones were so easy to make! I’m a Pampered Chef consultant – love that you used our product! The chicken pockets look delicious too!

  5. Jordan

    This is now my families go to recipe when we dont feel like cooking. We have made it three times. We have decided to experiment a little next time with a chicken cordon bleu calzone. Cheese, diced ham, more cheese, diced chicken, more cheese, more ham, more cheese, yummm. =]

    Thanks Amanda, keep them coming!

  6. Mike

    Here is a pizza crust recipe that I have been using for about the last 4 years. All the ingredients are weighed out rather than measured out. It only has four ingredients: Flour, Water, Yeast, and Kosher Salt.

    This pizza recipe has a 60% hydration to it. That means the water weight is 60% of the flour weight. The salt can be as high as 3% and the yeast is usually 1% or less. The quicker you want it to rise the more yeast you use but it doesn’t develop as good a flavor.

    180 grams all purpose flour,
    108 grams water,
    2 grams instant yeast,
    5 grams kosher salt.

    Instant yeast is bread machine yeast or you can find it in 1 lb bags for the same price as the jar of bread machine yeast from the grocery store. I split each pound into 3 or 4 pint canning jars and freeze all but one which I leave in the refrigerator. Instant yeast doesn’t need any proofing. Just mix it with the flour, salt, and water and let it do its thing.

    I combine all items in my Kitchen Aid stand mixer with a dough hook attached and mix on setting 2 until it’s all combined. Then I cover it and let it sit for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes I knead using the dough hook for 5 minutes. I usually knead at setting 4.

    Then I shape it into a tight ball and then spray it lightly with olive oil spray and let it rest for an additional 30 minutes.

    After 30 minutes, you can then roll it out or shape it by hand to whatever size you need it. If it doesn’t stretch enough, stretch in as far as it lets you and then let it rest for about 5-7 minutes and then roll it out further.

    The above recipe makes 10.4 ounces(295 grams). I use all purpose flour because bread flour baked at 375 degrees would be too tough and chewy.

    For pizza I use the following recipe.
    120 g all purpose flour
    60 g cake flour
    117 g water
    2 g instant yeast
    5 g kosher salt
    It’s a little wetter dough but with the higher temperature it has better oven spring when it is put into the oven on the baking stone.

    Hope you don’t find this too daunting. It’s way better than any dough you could ever buy in a can and it’s about 30 cents a dough.

  7. Nicole W.

    I found this recipe on Monday, and decided I had to make them that night!! It turned out fantastically!!! It was a quick and easy meal, and my husband loved it! Thanks so much for sharing, I look forward to trying another one soon!!

  8. Danielle

    I made these the other night and they turned out awesome! I loved how fast it was to make them! I used pepperoni and ground beef since I didn’t have sausage on hand and they turned out delicious. One thing I didn’t do was leave enough room on the edges to pinch together before baking so we had a little bit of leakage but thats ok! They still turned out great! I also made 2 instead of 1 big one. The best part is my picky husband loved them (he’s loved every recipe of yours that I’ve tried in the past few days!)

  9. JaneAnn

    These were great! I’m making them again this weekend for our 14 year old Grandson. Thanks for sharing. (I used Whole Foods Mild Italian Turkey sausage.)

  10. Beth

    I’ve made these a couple times…my personal favorite is lots of pepperoni with smoked provolone and mozzarella…or the pizza blend (and the smoked provolone too–gotta have it!!) I made it a few weeks ago doing cheese steak..reminded me of a cheesesteak stromboli..I need to pass this recipe on to my mom using that meat ;) (I had the deli carve up the meat for me–it was an italian roast beef). Anywho, these are fab. As far as the extra 33% Ive only been stuck using the can that has the extra 2 or 3 times, so i roll it out on waxpaper first, and then cut it in sections and make 4 medium sized ones instead of 1 big one…works out great. That way I can also make mine my way, my husband likes his with sauteed onions, sausage, hamburger, canadian bacon and what not (it works great if you brown a little extra meat and then stick it in a zippy bag and freeze it–then for this I can just pull it out and tada!) I added a pinch of dried oregano to the grated parm on top, added a nice flavor to an already GREAT flavor! :D

    Oh, and Ive made my own dough once…with my breadmaker…you should get one :) LOL (though i dont use mine to bake bread, i find the loaves are too dense and im not digging that at all!!)

  11. Jessica

    Hi Amanda! I made these a few days ago…my husband and I really liked them! Thanks for the great recipe. I have used this pizza dough for other recipes, and I laughed when I read yours, because I’m always saying that the 33% more is just a little too much extra dough!

  12. jenn

    ohh amanda!!!! lol, well I made the chicken packets the night before last, took them to the hospital yesterday and they were a huge hit! now today i have in the oven the chicken packets, but used a thing of ranch dressing mix and your homemade bacon bits :) I also have two calzones in my other oven :) my house smells amazing!!

  13. Trudy E.

    You may also get a LB of dough from your favorite pizza shop. We get it at ours, & it cost about $2. I make calzone all the time w/ Tyson Buffalo Tenders, Blue Cheese Dressing, Lots of cheese, and then a mixure of hot sauce and butter brushed on the top before baking. Also … Steak (steak-ums type), horseradish sauce, sauteed mushrooms and onions. My motto is if it can be made into a sandwich I try to make it a calzone. With love from a new fan, Trudy

  14. Lori

    Hey Amanda! We enjoyed these so much last week, I had to prepare them for our weekend guests and they loved them! I can’t wait to try another recipe!

  15. Lori

    I finally prepared this and am kicking myself for not doing it sooner! I substituted diced ham for sausage and sprinkled garlic on top and it was delicious!

  16. Dawn

    I have made this six times since I got the recipe here. They are delicious and my teenage children and their friends absolutely love them. I sometimes add canadian bacon and/or turkey pepperoni to mine and the last time I made them I spread the dough out on the baking pan cut it into four sections and made four calzones instead of one giant one. BIG hit here!!!!

  17. Dawn

    If you have a Trader Joes in your area they sell yummy pizza dough that comes in a clear plastic bag and you can find it in the deli section. These calzones look fabulous and I can’t wait to try them. Yummy!!!!

  18. Megan

    I made these tonight and we loved them! I took a pic, so I’ll send that to you soon. They were delicious! I added some pizza seasoning I buy from the Amish (wonderful stuff!) and it, along with your ingredients, were yummy! Definitely enough for more than the two of us (mine was huge). We’re thinking of adding these to our “regulars” and trying different ingredients next time…maybe some Canadian Bacon, mushrooms, who knows! Thanks so much for adding the recipe section, I love it. It makes me want to add it to my site… :)

  19. Mandi

    Amanda, I love your new recipe section. Your commentaries are so much fun to read, and I really like the pictures! Allen and I actually made calzones this past Friday. We used the Publix pizza dough, like Jamie recommended. It is a really tasty dough! Anyway, just wanted to drop you a note and say that I’m impressed with all of your creativity! :-)

  20. Jamie

    That is so funny about the 33% more dough. Have ou tried getting the ball of dough at Publix? They have some very tasty and fresh dough.

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Meet Kevin & Amanda

Kevin and Amanda

We love to travel and to eat! Here we share our favorite quick and easy recipes, plus travel tips and guides for our favorite places around the world. If you have any questions about what camera I use or how I edit my photos, check out my photography tutorials.

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