Meat Lover’s Zucchini Calzone

Considering I’m Italian, I feel like I don’t stay true to my heritage very often. And that bothers me.

But since Italian food generally revolves around heavy carbs, meat and ungodly amounts of cheese, it’s sometimes hard to want to recreate meals that are reminiscent of my roots.

But not when it comes to pizza…or calzones. Mmmm calzones.

I’ve gotten lazy in these humid hot days and pizza variations are easy to whip up since they’re fairly routine. This particular calzone doesn’t take much thought or effort, but the end result tastes as though you may have spent all week preparing for it. I know I generally don’t base meals around faux meats, but this is an exception. I brought it to a family party at Jim’s parent’s house (who are extreme carnivores) and even THEY didn’t realize that this meal was completely plant-based. This dish also gave me a chance to use some of my Elianni products, which we’ll be using in a giveaway tomorrow 🙂

PS- I will NEVER make pizza dough any other way, now that I used the food processor for this batch!

1 8 oz package organic tempeh

1/2 Elianni veggie roll, chopped (or about 1 1/2 cups other fake meat or your choice)

1 zucchini, chopped

1 cup organic tomato basil sauce

1 cup chopped grape or cherry tomatoes

8 slices or about 1 1/2-2 cups vegan cheese (we used the new Daiya provolone pre-slices-amazeballs!)

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

SUPER QUICK PIZZA DOUGH

2 1/2 cups organic all purpose flour

1 cup warm water

1 package active dry yeast

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp organic sugar

3 tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
To make the dough, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water for 10 minutes
Add flour, salt and yeast mix into a food processor and pulse for about 30 seconds
Slowly stream in olive oil and pulse until dough becomes sticky
Remove and stretch out onto a floured surface
In a large skillet over medium heat, cook zucchini, tempeh and oregano in olive oil for about 7 minutes
Add tomatoes, sauce, garlic, salt and pepper and bring to high heat, continuously stirring
Reduce back to medium heat and cook for 5 more minutes
Layer half of the cheese on one half of the pizza dough and pour the meat mix over it
Top with remaining cheese and then fold the over half of the dough over it and seal
Brush with olive oil and dried basil
Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes