rare dinner share

I know I don't really mention dinners anymore, but this one was too good not to post. So I had a taste for calzones--which I hadn't attempted since last Fall--and I wanted one that didn't involve tomato sauce in it or on it. And maybe I could use up some mushrooms and add chicken...or chicken sausage. So with the guidance of recipes from Reynolds Kitchens and Sunset I ended up with Pesto-Chicken Sausage Calzones.

Basic ingredients:

• 1 lb of pizza dough (thawed if frozen)
• 1/2 c. of pesto (I used refrigerated Buitoni)
• Swiss cheese--I used two slices of thin baby Swiss per calzone, you might like it cheesier
• 1 c. steamed broccoli
• 1 c. sliced mushrooms
• 2 fully-cooked Italian chicken sausages, sliced 

Before following the directions from one of the linked recipes you'll want to brown your mushrooms and sausage (use one pan for less cleanup!). I just sprayed the pan with some PAM olive oil spray and sautéed for about 5 minutes.

The great thing about calzones--I can't believe I didn't realize this sooner--is that you can throw basically anything in there that needs to be eaten and not wasted. Same goes for pizza or frittatas. The trick with calzones, though, is not to overstuff. You need them to be able to fold over, otherwise you're just making mini-pizzas.