Pasta Stuffed Calzone

Has it been forever? It has!
Let me wake up from my slumber and give you a sneak peek into my life this past year. It's not that I have not been busy. I sewed a bunch of clothes, read a few books(follow me on goodreads) and tried many a marvellous recipes. But as usual I have been too lazy to blog! Sorry about that!

I have also taken up a new hobby - gardening. Our terrace garden is looking damn neat! May be I will put up a full post on my gardening adventures.

Apart from that here is something we tried today morning for breakfast - Pasta stuffed Calzone.
This recipe makes about 10 calzones.

Dough

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tbspn extra virgin olive oil
6 tspn sugar
1 tspn salt
1 tbspn dry active yeast
Warm water to knead

In some luke warm (not hot!) water add 2 teaspoons of sugar and dissolve. Add the yeast to this mixture and set aside for 2 minutes. The yeast with activate and bubble. Add the remaining sugar, salt and oil to the flour. Make a well in the center of the  flour mixture and add the yeast slurry. Knead with warm water to make a soft dough. Knead well for at least 10 minutes to activate the gluten in the dough. The dough should be soft and should spring back if touched. Set aside this dough with a wet kitchen towel on top for about 1 hour in a draft free warm place. Let the dough proof till it doubles in size.

Pasta Stuffing

2 tbspn extra virgin olive oil
10 cloves of garlic
1 large onion
1 green capsicum
4 tomatoes pureed
1 tspn oregano
1 tspn chilli flakes
1 tspn sugar
1 tbspn tomato ketchup
salt to taste
1/2 cup boiled pasta(I used macaroni)
few slices of black olives

Heat the olive oil in a pan, add the finely chopped garlic. Purée the onion and capsicum and add it to the pan. Let it cook out for 5 minutes. Add the purée of tomatoes, cover and cook till most of the water evaporates. Add a dash of oregano, chilli flakes, sugar, salt. Add a little bit of ketchup to balance out the taste. This sauce is my default marinara that I use on my pizza's.
Add sliced olives and cooked pasta to the sauce and keep aside.

Caramelized Onion and Capsicum

1 tspn extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion
1 red capsicum
1 yellow capsicum
1 tspn sugar
salt to taste

Cut the onion and capsicum into thin slivers. Heat oil in a pan and add the onion. Add some sugar and let it caramelize. Add the capsicums and caramelize till slightly brown. Add a pinch of salt to taste.

Other Stuffing Ingredients

Mozzarella cheese
Basil leaves

Assembly

Image Source - thekitchn.com

Take a small ball of dough and roll it into a circular form(like chapati). Add the pasta stuffing to one side of the semi circle. Add the caramelized onion and capsicum. Add some mozzarella cheese and a few leaves of basil. Drizzle with a little bit of olive oil. Now flip over the other half of the semi circle over this half with stuffing into a half moon shape( just like karanji or gunjiya). Crimp the edges of the calzone to shut them well.

Place them on an oiled baking tray and let them proof for another 15 minutes.
Drizzle some olive oil on top.

Preheat oven to 200C and place them to bake for about 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy!

Ravioli

We love Italian cuisine (including the tiny tot who loves pasta!).
This ravioli is made from scratch. Even the pasta dough was homemade and is eggless. It is a tedious procedure but turns out really nice.

Spinach and Cheese Ravioli in Creamy Tomato Sauce

Fresh Pasta Dough 
Makes 27-28 raviolis

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup semolina
Pinch of salt
1 tbspn olive oil
3/4 to 1 cup warm water

Mix the flours and salt. Drizzle in the olive oil and work the dough into bread crumb consistency. Add water little by little so that it keeps resembling bread crumbs. Slowly they will start clumping together. It will form a nice dough. Ensure it is not too soft. If required add more semolina. Set aside covered with a damp cloth for 30 mins.

Spinach and Cheese Filling

1 tbspn olive oil
1 big bunch of spinach leaves
1 cup of mixed cheese (Ricotta, Mozzarella, Parmesan)
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a pan, add the spinach. Cover and cook the spinach to wilt it. Once wilted, open and cook to evaporate any liquid.
Once cooled, chop the spinach and move to a bowl. Mix in the cheeses and season with salt and freshly cracked pepper.

Assembly of Ravioli

Roll out the dough on a well floured surface to as thin as you can. Paper thin is preferable (1/3 cm thickness). The thinner the pasta sheet the better the cooked ravioli would taste. However if it is too thin, then it would burst open while boiling. This is one of those hit and try method of figuring out the right thickness. But think paper.
Try to roll out the dough into a rectangle.We need to finally fold the sheet into half length wise. Next place teaspoon worth filling into one half of the sheet at equidistant spaces and cover over the other half to enclose this filling. Remove any air bubbles. I use a cookie cutter to cut them out into circles and crimp the edges with a fork.

Once made, let them dry out on a floured surface for 20 to 30 mins.


Creamy Tomato Sauce

1 tbspn olive oil
1/2 medium onion finely chopped
4-5 pods garlic finely chopped
3-4 medium de-skinned tomatoes chopped finely
1/2 cup tomato puree
Salt and pepper to taste
Red chilli flakes
Oregano
1 cup cream
Grated parmesan cheese

Heat olive oil in a pan, add the chopped garlic and onion. Cook till onions are translucent. Add the tomatoes and puree. Cover and cook for 10 mins. Add the salt, pepper and other spices. Once cooked well, add the cream and grated cheese. This sauce really tastes divine!

Final Assembly

For final cooking, bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil. Put in the raviolis and let it boil for 2-3 mins. They will start to float when done. Remove and add sauce on top. Garnish with more cheese and basil.

Enjoy!