Spinach Artichoke Calzones: Everyone's favorite dip is transformed into the filling for a homemade calzone. Your pizza night has been completely revolutionized.
We love pizza at my house.
Buffalo Chicken Pizza, Chicken Fajita Pizza, and even Pizza grilled cheese.
Calzones are not something I typically make on our family's pizza night, but I decided to change up our latest pizza night with Spinach Artichoke Calzone recipe and boy was my family happy!
I took everyone's favorite Spinach Artichoke dip and turned it into the filling of a calzone.
These Spinach Calzones may just make EVERYONE a fan of spinach--even those people who turn their nose up at my Easy Spinach Pizza.
Spinach Artichoke Calzone
This is not quite the same as stuffing your beloved dip into bread dough. Nope, that would probably be a bit too rich to eat much of.
Imagine all that sour cream or mayonnaise--too much of a good thing?!
That is why I choose to stuff my homemade calzones with my Skinny Spinach Artichoke Dip. No guilt there--just a hefty dose of veggies and protein from Greek yogurt.
Dip this calzone into homemade marinara sauce (or your favorite store brand) and you will be whisked away into culinary heaven.
How to Make Homemade Calzones
Step One: Start with your favorite pizza dough recipe.
I use my easy pizza dough recipe, but you can substitute your favorite or even uses store bought pizza dough. In order to make calzones, you do want to be sure to rest your pizza dough at least 30 minutes before trying to roll out.
Step Two:Make Skinny Spinach Artichoke Dip if you haven't already. (See notes about other filling ideas)
Step Three: Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
Step Four: Divide the dough into 4 portions. And roll into ¼ inch thick rounds.
Step Six: Top each portion of calzone dough with ⅓ cup filling on half the round.
Step Seven: Fold the calzone dough over and seal together by crimping with your fingers or a fork.
Step Eight: Brush each calzone with an egg wash (or olive oil). Make a small slit on top of each calzone to allow steam to escape while baking.
Step Nine: Bake your homemade calzones.
Step Ten: Resist to bite into immediately and allow to cool and then DEVOUR your homemade calzone!
A few notes to remember when making calzone recipes:
- You can use any pizza dough you like to make calzones. Can you use bread dough to make calzones? Yes, you can, but but pizza dough is a better choice for the texture of the calzone and bread dough would change the baking time of a calzone recipe.
- I choose to fill these Spinach Artichoke calzones with my spinach dip, but let the fillings be up to your preference and your imagination. Traditionally, calzones fillings are made with ricotta cheese, a few seasonings, and mozzarella cheese. So if that sounds more like your cup of tea, go for it!
- It is important to make one slit on top of the calzone before baking. To make this slit in the calzone, allows air to escape while the calzone bakes, allowing the dough to bake evenly and for pressure to not build up inside the calzone.
Spinach Artichoke Calzones
Ingredients
- 1 pound pizza dough
- 1 ⅔- 2 cups Spinach Artichoke Dip
- 1 egg for an egg wash or 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Marinara for serving
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Divide dough into 4 equal portions and roll out into ¼ inch thick rounds.
- Place about ⅓- ½ cup of mixture onto 1 half of each round, leaving a ¼ inch border.
- Fold the dough over and seal by crimping with your hands or fork.
- Mix the egg with a splash of water and brush over each calzone.
- Cut 1 slits on top of each calzone.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes until crust is golden brown.
- Allow to cool and cut into half to serve along side marinara sauce.
Nutrition
Michelle @ A Dish of Daily Life
This is definitely my kind of pizza night! I love the spinach artichoke combination! Yum!
Michelle @ A Dish of Daily Life
That looks really good! I've been meaning to try making calzones...I make strombolis a lot. You make it sound relatively easy...I think I am going to give it a try!
Kristen Chidsey
Michelle, if you can make strombolis, calzones will be a walk in the park for you!
Joy @ Joy Love Food
I love calzones and the spinach artichoke combo, these sound wonderful!
Kristen Chidsey
Thanks Joy! The spinach and artichoke combo is really great.
Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake
wow!! This looks so awesome, such a great and delicious idea! I love artichokes but you don't really see them much here in the UK, or I'm not shopping in the right places haha
Kristen Chidsey
Hmm, I wonder why you don't find artichokes that easily. You can try in the pickled section (sometimes jarred like pickles), the canned section, or the frozen section. We have them in all places here in the US. Good luck finding them. And if not, just the spinach with feta would be a great combo on it's own. Of course you could add mushrooms or chicken or anything your heart desires.