Calzone with Italian Tomato Sauce

 I have two sons that go away to college and they always request their favorite foods when they come home, this week has been full of foods that fall into that category.  This recipe is a favorite of Olivia's and she is constantly begging me to make it. It takes a few hours to put together so I don't make it very often. I've modified the recipe from the cookbook A Pinch of Salt Lake, this book is no longer in print, but you can sometimes find used copies on Amazon or Ebay. I've bought one for each of my kids and have put them away until they move out,Tommy's is currently in his kitchen in Missouri.  This cookbook is probably used more in my home than almost any other I own, and buying them  used is a super cheap way to get one!

Italian Tomato Sauce:
4 tablespoons butter
2 medium onions, chopped
3 medium carrots, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
12 ounce tomato paste
28 oz crushed tomatoes
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon basil
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 c dry white wine, you can sub water for this

Before blending the sauce, notice the chunks of carrots and onions

I love my immersion blender, it makes it so easy to blend while the food is still cooking.

Prepare this sauce at least 2 hours before serving. Melt butter in a medium saucepan, saute onions, carrots and garlic until onion is limp but not browned. Add tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, oregano, basil, sugar and wine. Simmer uncovered on low for an hour. After an hour either use an immersion blender and blend sauce smooth, or transfer into a blender and liquify. This changes the color of the sauce from dark red to more of an orange color (this is caused by the carrots) Simmer again for another hour on low.

Calzone
2 lbs frozen white bread dough, thawed
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 clove garlic, minced
12 slices Provolone cheese
12 slices hard salami
8 slices Mortadella (Italian bologna) if you can't find don't panic, you can leave it out, but I recommend trying to find it at a good deli
8 slices boiled or baked ham
2 green onions, sliced

To prepare Calzone, grease a baking sheet or cover it with tin foil or silpat mat. Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface to a 12x18 inch rectangle. Saute garlic in butter for 2-3 minutes. Spread half of garlic butter on top of dough. Arrange Provolone, salami, Mortadella and ham over dough; sprinkle with green onions. Fold top third of dough over middle, then fold bottom third up over top, as if folding business letter, enclosing filling. Transfer to baking sheet. Pinch ends to seal. Spread remaining garlic butter over top.

I decided to uses 3 lbs of dough and ran into a small rolling problem :) I couldn't get 

it to do what I wanted, sort of looked like a clover instead of a rectangle.

Spoon melted butter and garlic over dough

Next the ham

Mortadella is the secret ingredient

hard salami on top

chopped green onions

Fold up the dough and spread remaining butter/garlic mixture on top

                                         Bake for 30 minutes at 350 or until golden brown.

Nice and brown

Allow to cool  5 min before slicing and serving 

Spoon Italian Sauce over top.  

                                                                         Enjoy!