Eggplant Calzones

Eggplant CALZONES

Makes 8

Ingredients:
1 batch of pizza dough
olive oil
2 small Italian eggplant
1.5 cups crushed tomatoes
TT kosher salt
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup oregano 

Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. I place the dough on top of the warming oven (on an unused burner) to rise.

2. Peel your eggplant and slice into rounds. Brush with olive oil and grill until cooked through. I use a panini maker, but an outdoor grill would be even faster. After they have been grilled roughly chop and place into a bowl. Combine with the salt, oregano, crushed tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. Set aside.

3. Your dough should have risen enough by now. Punch it down and separate into 2 balls. Let it rest on the counter covered by a damp cloth for about 15 minutes. Then separate each ball into 4 balls, and each of those in half. You should now have 16 even sized balls of dough.

4. Bring one ball of dough in front of you and keep the rest covered with the damp cloth. Roll out the ball, using extra flour as needed. Place a good scoop of your eggplant mixture into the bottom half of the rolled out dough. Fold the dough over and pinch all around the seams. I like to roll the seam together to make the calzone look nicer. Brush with olive oil and cut an X into the center to allow steam to exit. Repeat with each ball of dough. Place 6 calzones on an oiled cookie sheet at a time. Bake in the oven until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is slightly bubbling outside of the X. Remove and repeat until you have cooked all of the calzones.