Grilled Calzones

The Co-op and these calzones go way back!

The Co-op Calzone Booth used to be a fixture in the community, appearing weekly at the Corvallis Farmers’ Market and at events like Corvallis Fall Festival and da Vinci Days.

It was quite the operation. In the community, the booth was staffed by volunteers from local non-profits, new ones each week that were trained by Co-op staff. Basil was grown in the Co-op garden (where the South Store playground is now located) and harvested by the trash bag full to be made into pesto. Big River supplied pizza dough by the bucketful. Ingredients were prepared ahead of time at the Co-op, but the assembly and grilling happened right there in the booth.

At a typical Market, we would sell about 200 calzones. At one da Vinci Days we sold over 1,000! That’s a lot of calzones, no wonder if eventually just became too difficult to keep up with. Miss them no more, though, because now you can make your own grilled calzones at home!

Co-op Sales basil, bunched

Pesto Calzone Ingredients

  • 4 oz. Big River pizza dough
  • 1 Tbsp. Pasta Plus pesto
  • 1/4 cup grated mozzarella
  • 2 Tbsp. chopped tomatoes
  • 1 Tbsp. chopped onion
  • 2 tsp. grated Parmesan

Red Pepper Calzone Ingredients

  • 4 oz. Big River pizza dough
  • 1 Tbsp. Meditalia sundried tomato tapenade
  • 2 Tbsp. diced roasted red pepper
  • 1/4 cup grated mozzarella
  • 1 Tbsp. chopped onion
  • 2 tsp. grated Parmesan

Instructions:

To form calzone, let dough come to room temperature. Roll dough out on a floured board into a 9″ circle. To make a Pesto Calzone, spread pesto, mozzarella, tomato, onion, and Parmesan on one half of dough circle, leaving 1/2″-1″ of dough clear around the edges. To make a Red Pepper Calzone, do the same with the sundried tomato tapenade, roasted red peppers, mozzarella, onion, and Parmesan. Fold dough over into a half-circle, folding bottom layer up and over top layer and twisting it as you go, to form a rope-like edge. Place calzone on grill and cook until grill-side is golden brown. Flip calzone and grill similarly on the other side.