Cherry Tomato and Mozzarella Calzones

 Now that we have used up all of our CSA produce (or at least the vast majority of it) we are on a mission to use up everything in our freezer.  I periodically stock the freezer up until it's ridiculously full and then go to the other extreme and try to empty everything out.  After awhile you start to forget just what you have in there.  I know I do.  The other day when I was trying to reorganize the freezer I realized that we had a ton of hanger steak and random cuts of pork in there, as well as a variety of sausages.  Who knew?  We also had a few balls of pizza  dough.  So I decided that at the very least we should use a ball of pizza dough and a hanger steak.  When you start to find forgotten and buried treasures in the freezer (some of which are so freezer burned to no longer be treasures in any sense of the word) it is time to clean out the freezer and start over from scratch.

The inspiration for this recipe came from a recipe for Cherry Tomato Pizza Margherita that I found on Epicurious.  I liked the idea of turning cherry tomatoes into the sauce for the pizza, but I wanted to make calzones instead of pizza.  We make pizza all the time, but we rarely make calzones.  To be fair, the last time we made calzones we made one giant calzone and it exploded and oozed everywhere.  Oops.  So I was very careful sealing the calzones this time in order to prevent them from forming another oozing, soupy mess.  And it worked!  I know they're not exactly pretty to look at (and they didn't turn as golden as I wanted them to, but I was afraid to cook them any longer for fear that they would explode), but they were pretty yummy to eat.  Actually, the calzones came out looking a lot like samosas...  Oh well.  My favorite thing about the calzones was definitely the fennel seeds in the tomato sauce.  It gave the calzones a truly unique and delicious flavor.  I also liked the addition of the crushed red pepper flakes.  The sauce is very flavorful - fresh and sweet from the cherry tomatoes and basil.  The sauce is so good that Alex and I were actually discussing using it with pasta in the future.  I think it would work really well with pasta.  And I would definitely use it with pizza.  The sauce is so easy and flavorful that there is absolutely no reason to ever use canned pizza sauce or marinara sauce again.  You could substitute the fennel seeds if fennel just isn't your thing, omit the crushed red pepper flakes, or try oregano instead of fresh basil.  There are all sorts of ways you could adapt the basic recipe and make it work for you!

Recipe after the jump!

Cherry Tomato and Mozzarella Calzones

INGREDIENTS:
1 ball pizza dough (ours was somewhere under a pound but it didn't say exactly how much it weighed)
1 tbsp evoo, plus additional for brushing the top of the calzones
12-oz. cherry tomatoes, stemmed
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp fennel seeds, coarsely crushed
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
6 oz. fresh mozzarella, diced

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or preheat the pizza stone in the oven. 

Heat a large saute pan over moderate heat.  Add evoo.  Once oil is hot, add tomatoes.  Sprinkle with s&p.  Saute, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes are charred and beginning to burst.  Transfer to a large bowl with garlic, fennel, crushed red pepper flakes, and fresh basil.  Gently crush tomatoes in the bowl, leaving large tomato chunks intact.  Season to taste with s&p.
 
On a lightly floured surface, separate dough into two equal portions.  Using a rolling pin, roll dough into roughly 8-10 inch rounds.  If dough starts to stick to the rolling pin, sprinkle with more flour.  Sprinkle baking sheet or pizza stone with corn meal.  Transfer dough rounds to baking sheet or pizza stone.  Top one side of the round with diced mozzarella and tomato mixture, leaving at least half an inch of dough around the border.  Fold dough over the filling and roll and pinch edges of dough to seal the calzone.  Using a pastry brush, brush the top of the calzone lightly with evoo.

Bake calzones until golden-brown, about 15-17 minutes.  Remove calzones from oven and let rest 5-10 minutes before serving.  

Serve calzones with remaining tomato-mixture.