Meatball Calzones
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These Meatball Calzones are a real crowd pleaser and fun to make. A hearty, simple and perfect family meal.
If you follow my blog, then you know I’m a big fan of Guy Fieri’s Diners Drive-ins and Dives show. I could watch that show all day long and I probably have. I just find it intriguing to see all the interesting dishes served at these places. One of these dishes served at a diner, which I can’t remember where or what it was called, was this wonderful meatball calzone.
I thought it was a great idea. We already make pizza at our house almost every weekend, with home made pizza dough, and I make meatballs quite often at home as well so I thought it’d be a great idea to pair the two together. I mean it’s a meatball calzone, how bad could it be?
Well it’s a fabulous idea indeed. Now I wanted to make this dish a bit healthier, I know who am I kidding, but I baked my meatballs. Yes I know they’re better fried, but they’re not so bad baked either so live with it. Now the recipe for these meatball calzones is not from the show because, well I never write down the recipes when I see them.
But a meatball is a meatball. I wanted to keep mine simple, so all I added was ground pork, Frank’s hot sauce, because I do put this stuff on everything, breadcrumbs, an egg, a bit of parsley and some salt and pepper. Pretty simple. If you want to go all out I suggest you try my Romanian Meatballs recipe because those meatballs are to die for. But I wanted to keep it simple this time. Out of this whole mixture I made 6 large meatballs. They probably don’t look so big in the picture, but they are.
I baked them for about 45 minutes until they were nicely done. The pizza dough for these calzone is just my regular pizza dough recipe which is a staple at our house, I usually make it and divide it in 3 which makes 3 medium pizzas, however for these calzones, I used half of the pizza dough from that recipe. Freeze the other half. Cut the one half pizza in 6 pieces and roll each piece into a circle. Spread a tablespoon or two of pizza sauce over the dough, sprinkle a couple tablespoons of cheese, add a yummy meatball, add some more sauce and some more cheese, well because we want the meatball to be fully covered in the gooey cheese.
Bring up the edge of the pizza dough and pinch in the middle to form a ball. And there you have it, the meatball calzone.
Repeat with remaining meatballs. Now you don’t have to do the next step, but I like my calzones to have a nice shiny top, so I brushed them with egg and poked a couple holes in each calzone with a fork. Bake them at 500 F degrees, for 10 to 15 minutes, until they’re nice and golden brown.
Your house will smell so good and people will just love you when you give them one of these calzones. Yep, trust me, you’ll be very popular. I mean, come on, it’s a The Meatball Calzone, so Mangia! Mangia!!
If you try this recipe, please let us know! Leave a comment, rate it and tag a photo #jocooks on Instagram so we can see it. I always love to see what you guys come up with!
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Meatball Calzones
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground pork
- 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoon hot sauce (I used Frank's)
- 1 tablespoon parsley (chopped)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper (or to taste)
- 2 cups mozzarella cheese (shredded)
- 1 cup pizza sauce
- 1/2 pizza dough
- 1 egg (for egg wash)
Before You Begin! If you make this, please leave a review and rating letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business thrive & continue providing free recipes.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 F degrees. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, mix the ground pork, breadcrumbs, egg, hot sauce, parsley, salt and pepper. Form the mixture into 6 large meatballs.
- Bake meatballs for about 30 to 45 minutes, until golden brown.
- Preheat oven to 500 F degrees.
- Take the pizza dough and cut it into 6 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a 10 inch circle. Spread a couple tbsp of pizza sauce over the dough, sprinkle with a couple tbsp of cheese, add a meatball in the center, add a couple more tbsp of sauce and a couple more tbsp of cheese. Bring up the edge of the pizza dough and pinch in the middle to form a ball.
- Repeat with remaining meatballs.
- Place the calzones seam side down on the baking sheet and brush with egg wash.
- Bake for about 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
Mangia!! is right, what a great idea, I’ throwing a dinner party soon, and have been racking my brain trying to figure out what to serve as the opening dish, thank you!!!! However, not as big….
Lol, that’s right, if it’s an opening dish, like an appetizer, smaller would be better. 🙂