Calzone with tomato sauce

The production house I worked at in Hongkong some years back had made a TV commercial for mooncake (filled with sweet paste made from lotus seed, a festive food). A little talent, who was a 6 year-old boy, however, hated mooncakes! He tasted it, spitted out, ran to his mommy to cry. But no worry, everytime the camera started rolling, the boy automatically got himself ready... angel smile, chubby cheeks, and a giant bite on cake (over 10 takes), urging every parent in front of TV running to that bakery! My reality has no such a story. I baby-sit three kids on most Friday-afternoons, the 5 year-old lived on nothing but chicken nuggets, the 6 year-old just ate the crust (of my calzone), the 7 year-old just licked the sauce. Once I raised my camera, they all ran!

Calzone is more like pizza turnover, what filled inside has no limits but your imagination. I can take something from very rich (cheeses and sausage) to very simple, like this one - black olive and tomato sauce.

Recipe of basic tomato sauce

Ingredients (yield 3 cups)

• 1 can 3kg peeled plum tomatoes in their own juice* (best to get San Marzano)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 carrot
• 6 sweet basil leaves
• 1 sprig of oregano
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• olive oil

Steps

1. Seed the tomatoes, pass them through a food mill fitted with the fine disc, but don't puree them in a blender as that will change the texture.
2. In a big pot, heat some olive oil, brown the 2 garlics and onion, add the tomatoes, carrot, basil and oregano. With the lid set slightly ajar simmer for 30 minutes or until thickened enough. Taste and season. Discard the garlics, carrot and the herbs.
3. In a saucepan, heat 2 tablespoon oil, fry the minced garlic (1 clove) over very low heat. Once you smell the fragrance, pour the garlic oil into the sauce. Simmer for another 5 minutes.

* It will yield a light sauce. When I make sauce with meat, I'd prefer using canned tomato puree, in addition of spoonfuls of tomato paste, and simmer for a longer time, in this case I'll get a deeper flavored, smoother and denser sauce.

To make calzone, use any pizza dough's recipe you like. Stretch a circle, not too thick nor thin, place the filling on half of the circle, fold the other half over, crimp. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil on top. Bake in a pre-heat (30 minutes at least, with baking stone in) oven, 475F, until it golden brown. Serve immediately.

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