When I lived in the North End of Boston, there used to be a pizzeria on Salem Street that made the most amazing pizza and calzone. My favorite of all their calzones was the eggplant Parm calzone! It gave me great ideas for calzone fillings... spinach and cheese, broccoli and cheese, just use your imagination!
In the Pizza and Calzone class I used to teach at the Boston Center for Adult Ed, we made three calzones... first, a basic ham and cheese cubes one, and here are the other recipes, in case you want to try them:
OTHER CALZONE FILLINGS
Sausage
1 lb. hot or sweet Italian sausage, removed from casings
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
Take sausage out of casings, and saute sausage until the pink color disappears. Drain well. Pat dry on paper towels, and cool. Mix with parmesan and parsley. Set aside.
Fill calzones as in previous recipe. Bake as before.
Spinach and Cheese
1 lb. fresh spinach (or 1 10 oz. frozen chopped spinach)
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
2 TBS. butter
1 lb. ricotta cheese
2 cups (packed) grated Mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
dash of nutmeg
1. Wash and stem spinach. Steam it quickly over medium high heat, add NO water. When wilted, remove. Squeeze out as much water as possible. Chop finely and put in mixing bowl.
2. Saute onions in butter (or oil) until they are translucent. Mix with cheeses in the bowl with spinach. Mix well and season to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
3. Put 1/2 to 3/4 cup filling on one half of the circle of dough. Seal, and bake as before.
