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For the second Lenten Friday in a row last week I tried a new abstinence-friendly recipe, a “Crab and Parmesan Calzonelli” concoction from my Pasta & Pizza Presto cookbook. Except I didn’t quite make the small “calzonelli, which are supposed to be 3-inch rounds of dough stuffed, folded in half and pinched closed. Seemed like a lot of work for just the two of us, so I divided the same dough into four parts for four nicely sized calzones.
The smaller version (and the one offered below), would likely make a nice finger food for a party, but I was making dinner. And since I was filling much larger pockets of dough, I ended up using a lot more crab meat. I started out planning to use the shelf-stable crab meat you find next to cans of tuna in the supermarket, but upon opening one decided the flavor was inadequate and went back to buy a 16-ounce can of the refrigerated, pasteurized type — much closer, in my opinion, to what crab should taste like, though I was a tad annoyed to find small bits of shell when I sampled it.
It was, of course, a lot more crab than the recipe calls for (16 ounces vs. 4 ounces), but that worked out fine. For starters, I kept nibbling at it while prepping. Then when it was time to actually fill the dough, it was obvious the larger pockets required considerably more meat than the dainty calzonelli would have demanded. I ended up using all of it for the four I made.
Of course, I also upped the garlic, Parmesan and even the heavy cream, though with the instructions only calling for one tablespoon, I wasn’t going to buy a pint. I made a workable substitute, adding a little melted butter to two tablespoons of milk.
MT & I thought the filling was very tasty, and the proof is in how fast it went. Of the four calzones, three were gone by the time we had our fill. But we both agreed it could use some sauce — my first thought was tartar, but we quickly agreed cocktail sauce (as used for cold shrimp) would be better. And MT suggested it should not be a stand-alone dinner (as I served it), but could benefit from a side of vegetables.
Taking her advice, when I decided to reheat the fourth one for lunch two days later, I steamed some frozen vegetables and mixed up some homemade cocktail sauce. That’s the picture with this story.
Two tips: I opted to bake my larger calzones on a pizza stone, not on a greased cookie sheet, and it came out fine. Making the smaller ones would probably be easier on a sheet; I baked the first two as is, and decided the second two would benefit if I brushed the tops with olive oil before baking. I think the oiled dough came out looking and tasting a little better.
If you want a homemade cocktail sauce, this one works for me: Half a cup of ketchup, about 2 tablespoons of horseradish, and a splash of Worcestershire. Depending on taste, you may want to add a little lemon juice and even a few drops of Tabasco.
And if you need a pizza dough recipe, the one I prefer is ¾ cup all purpose flour, ¾ cup whole wheat flour, 1 teaspoon rapid-rise yeast, a pinch of salt, 1 tablespoon olive oil and ⅔ cup warm water. Mix, knead and let rise for 45 minutes or more.
Dobru chut!
Crab and Parmesan Calzonelli (Pasta & Pizza Presto)
1 quantity pizza dough
4 ounces mixed prepared crab meat, defrosted if frozen
1 tablespoon heavy cream
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped (I used dried parsley)
1 garlic clove, crushed.
salt and black pepper
Parsley sprigs for garnish.
Heat oven to 400°.
Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to ⅛ inch thick. Using a 3-inch plain round cutter, stamp out 10-12 circles.
In a bowl, mix crab meat, heavy cream, Parmesan, parsley, garlic and seasoning. Spoon a little of the filling onto one half of each circle. Dampen the edges with water and fold over to enclose. Seal the edges by pressing with the tines of a fork.
Place well apart on two greased baking sheets. Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden. Garnish with parsley sprigs.
Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112