Eggplant and Goat Cheese Calzone

This recipe (adapted from the Williams-Sonoma Pizza cookbook) has a little secret. (BACON!) Of course, you can omit the bacon if you want to, but if you’re trying to sell this dish to a carnivorous friend (or husband), the bacon really helps.

We used a gluten and dairy free dough for these calzones instead of our favorite Spelt-Right dough. The dough was delicious, but it stuck to itself and stuck to the counter, which made calzone-making difficult. This dough would probably be fine for pizzas, but we’ll use spelt dough for future calzones.

Pizza dough

2 eggplants, sliced into rounds

2 tbsp EVOO

4 slices turkey bacon, cooked, de-greased and crumbled

7 oz. goat cheese, crumbled

2 tbsp minced fresh basil

1. Preheat oven to 450°.

2. Heat grill (or grill pan) to medium-high

3. Lightly brush eggplant slices with EVOO and grill until tender, about 2 minutes per side.

4. In a medium bowl, combine goat cheese, basil, 1 tbsp of EVOO and bacon.

5. Divide the pizza dough into equal pieces depending on your preferred calzone size. (The cookbook recommended making each calzone the size of a baby’s shoe. With this dough, that would’ve been impossible.)

6. On a lightly floured surface, shape each piece of dough into something that resembles a circle. Arrange an equal amount of eggplant on half of each circle. Top with an equal amount of the goat cheese mixture.

7. Brush the edges of each circle with water, then fold the uncovered half over the covered half to make a calzone. Press the edges together to seal.

8. Bake for 10 minutes.

9. Reduce oven to 400° and bake for 10 more minutes, until crust is golden.