Alredo Brocolli Calzones

I love when an ingredient (or base recipe) lends itself to more than one recipe easily.  The pizza dough posted yesterday is definitely one of them!
Two others from my all time favourite list of “I use for everything” are–(have you guessed it yet?) Oktoberfest Sausage and Marble Cheese.
Buying one item that is really versatile instead of 2 or 3 (or more) not only means buying less, and storing less, but also spending less each week.

Marble cheese is my go to for baked pasta dishes, pizza, garlic bread, sandwiches, grilled cheese, etc etc…Generally, the only 2 cheeses I buy every week are Marble and Parmesan.  Unless I have a special occasion recipe or  appetizer cheese tray to make, I avoid buying all the other cheeses–because it saves me lots of money –but doesn’t sacrifice taste!

Same deal for Oktoberfest Sausage–every sausage recipe that I make, that’s what I use.  Lots of recipes call for different varieties of sausage–but I find if you have one you really like,substitute, substitute, substitute!.
An extra bonus to having these “multi functional ingredients” on hand?  Less structured meal planning–I have more flexibility in making what I feel like having today, and am not restricted by not having Swiss cheese, or garlic sausage–makes it easier for me!

As promised, here is our favourite Calzone Recipe–we have about 2 or 3 that we rotate through, but this one is definitely made more often than the others…

Alfredo Broccoli Calzones.
3/4 batch of pizza dough
3/4 head of broccoli chopped into bite size pieces
1 onion cut into wedges
1/2 jar sun dried tomato-julienned (drained of oil)
5-8 mushrooms sliced or quartered

Saute onion until translucent, add mushrooms and broccoli.  Saute until broccoli is almost cooked through.  Add sun dried tomatoes and alfredo sauce-toss until totally combined.  Set aside.

Easy Alfredo Sauce (really, this doesn’t take much more effort than opening a jar–and WAY better for you!)
1/4 cup butter
1 cup half and half cream (or use whipping cream–it will taste even better, but I rarely have it on hand, and this does the trick too…) 
1 cup parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic
pepper to taste.

In saucepan heat butter until foaming, add garlic and cream.  Heat cream through and add parmesan.  Continue to heat until it thickens slightly.  Add pepper, stir.  

Assembly:
Shape pizza dough into a large rectangle on a cookie sheet.  Place broccoli mixture down centre of rectangle and then fold one long end over to middle.  Fold both short ends towards the middle and then finally the last long end.  Pinch shut completely.  Cut 3-4 small slits in top to allow steam to escape.  Bake at 400 degrees about 20 minutes or so.

Tip:  You can also make these in the “regular” calzone half moon shape–one batch of dough will approx 4 small calzones.
Enjoy!