When we asked chefs about calzones, the most enthusiastic by far was Joe Cassinelli of Posto (and Painted Burro and the upcoming Rosebud). For Calzone Power Hour, here's what he had to say. (Spoiler alert: There will be calzones on the upcoming Posto food truck.)
On calzones in general:
"I love calzones! I just did a pizza class a couple weeks ago for Cambridge Culinary, and I made calzones with them. I was like, Look at this. This is one of these things that is completely under-appreciated around Boston. I made a calzone in front of them, and it's a beautiful thing."
"You gotta see a Neapolitan-style calzone. It's awesome. You crimp the edges. They were blown away, and I tried to explain to them that people don't order them in the restaurant because they perceive calzones to be these big bombs, these big leaded, breaded weights. But when you have a Neapolitan-style calzone, it's actually completely the opposite. You taste this flavorful bread with sea salt, olive oil. It looks like a big pastry. It looks like a big crescent. Almost looks like a giant croissant. They're really, really good. The calzone thing is awesome. I always try to get people to do it. I used to do calzones on my menu, but for whatever reason, they don't think of dining out at Posto and eating a calzone."
On the structure of a calzone:
"It's a Neapolitan pizza folded in half and baked in the oven. You stretch the dough the same way you would for a Margherita pizza, you put sauce on half of it, some fresh basil leaves, olive oil, sea salt. I like to fold over the top and crimp the edges and make it nice. Put a little hole so steam comes out. And then you can choose where you go from there.
Either you can rub a little tomato sauce on the top of the calzone and sprinkle a little parmesan cheese and let that get all nice and caramelized, or you would just do olive oil, sea salt, and parmesan cheese and maybe some fresh herbs on top. You cook these towards the front of the oven, where it's less hot, and you let it bake a little more, and they just puff up. It takes, like, four minutes to cook a calzone in the oven. They're super light. I wish more people would have calzones. They're definitely going to be on our food truck."
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