Saturday, August 06, 2011

Pizza, rolled

When I was growing up, we ordered pizza fairly regularly from the local pizza place, Rocco's.  When I was a bit older, I usually went for a calzone, rather than pizza.  These were essentially just cheese, cheese and more cheese, encased in dough, with some garlic on top.  With some red sauce on the side for dipping, of course.

When I went to uni, the local pizza place, Sergi's sold what are colloquially known as 'fat bags'.  On the menu, they are called a 'pizza roll' -- basically, a pizza with red sauce and cheese, and pepperoni optional, folded in half and deep fried.  They were good, in a disgusting way, and I only ever ate a few of them.  Instead, I fell in love with the *other* local pizza place, Josie's, version of the pizza roll, which was not deep fried, had a better crust, and could be filled with anything.

Then, I went vegan.  Ordering calzones or pizza rolls from pizzerias became a thing that doesn't happen anymore.  I tried, in the early days of living with Andy, to make some yummy calzones but... they weren't so hot.  At the time, my crusts were grainy, rather than stretchy, and were always too thick.  So Andy was all, 'ew, calzones'.

But I convinced him to let me have another go, now that I've gotten better at pizza dough.  I decided to fill it with ratatouille, a folded version of the ratatouille pizza we invented a few years ago.

So I made my dough, split it into a few balls, and rolled each one really thinly - because the crust puffs as it bakes, so it is always thicker than you expect.  I piled up my ratatouille.


Folded and twisted the seam.

And then baked them.  And I'm happy to report, they were a success!  Aaand, I forgot to take a final photo, but they looked much like the pre-baked version, only browner.

Rolled pizza is back on the menu - yay!

4 comments:

Helena Marinho said...

Oooooh *drools* this is so AWESOME! *-* Thank you VERY much for the idea! My fiancé's half-italian and loves calzones :P
Since we got vegan, we weren't able to enjoy them anymore, same story... But now, our lives were changed thanx to you xD

♥♥♥

Hannah said...

My friend and I tried to do this when we were in highschool.... the crust became like cardboard and the insides, when cut, had turned into a waterfall of oil. It was, as they say, "disgusting".

Yours, though? Impressive.

Susan said...

Delicious, and so pretty. :)

I bought a black sapote today at the markets. It isn't ripe yet, so I have some time to decide what to do with it.

the little one said...

You have mad skillz woman!