Reuben Calzones

Reuben Calzones – calzones with a Reuben twist! Pastrami, Swiss cheese and sauerkraut fill these calzones – a great change up!

Photo Updated December 2013

Rachael Ray – you either love her or you hate her. I have admitted before that I am a lover, and despite all of the opinions people have about her, I will always be a lover. In fact, there are only 2 cooking shows that I have on my DVR and that I religiously watch. 30 Minute Meals is one, and the other is America’s Test Kitchen. I know many people find her over the top and extremely annoying, but she really makes my kind of food. Food that can be made on a weeknight by someone who doesn’t have a ton of time to spend in the kitchen. Food that tastes good, is usually well balanced, and isn’t boring.

My husband doesn’t love her. I can’t watch if he is in the house because he finds her so annoying. But even he will admit that when I make recipes from her show or her magazine, they are winners. That is why I have decided to do this 7 day series – a week of Rachael Ray. I think everyone should give her recipes a chance, and this way you don’t have to watch her show to see the recipe – you can skip the annoying and go straight to the recipe.

In her magazine – Everyday with Rachael Ray – she always features a 7 day menu planner. Every month, I say I am going to make the whole menu, but I have never followed through with that. When I picked up March’s edition, after looking at those 7 dinners, I knew I would be making all 7 of them, and I thought it would be fun to bring them all to you. I admit that it took me longer than 7 days to get through all of these. In all honesty, I don’t cook 7 dinners a week. I’m lucky if I cook 5 nights a week. With just 2 of us, we will almost always have leftovers that need to be eaten, and sometimes life just gets in the way. So while I wanted to bring these to you in March, while the magazine was still out, I just didn’t make it. But every issue has one of these meal planners (which also includes a shopping list – which I love!) so you really should check it out!

Day One brings us this Reuben Pizza. I was both excited and apprehensive about this recipe. I love pastrami, but I’ve never been a big sauerkraut fan. But it had been quite some time since I had tried sauerkraut, so I took this opportunity to try it again to see if I would like it this time around. I was actually surprised – I didn’t hate it! I can’t say that I am a full on sauerkraut lover now and that I want to make everything with it, but I don’t hate it on any level!

This original recipe feeds 4. It is a circle shape, with dough on the top and on the bottom, then when the “pizza” is finished, it is cut into fourths. Since there are only 2 of us, I did this more of a calzone style – just doing one round of pizza dough and folding it in half. We then each got one half of the calzone. It was the perfect serving size for 2 people.

I only made 2 changes to this recipe. The original just calls for refrigerated pizza dough, but I made my own – using the pizza recipe in Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. This was excellent pizza dough!! I still like the Cook’s Illustrated recipe that I made before better, but this was much faster and easier, and was really good. The only other substitution I made was using regular dill pickles in the sauce instead of bread and butter pickles.

We loved these! Filling, and a great twist on a typical Reuben sandwich. And this was definitely easy enough for a weeknight!

**December 2013 Update – My family prefers these as individual calzones so I have updated the recipe to reflect this.**

Reuben Calzones

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Author: Deborah Harroun

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes minutes

Servings: 4 servings

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Reuben Calzones - calzones with a Reuben twist! Pastrami, Swiss cheese and sauerkraut fill these calzones – a great change up!

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Ingredients

• ▢ 1- pound pizza dough homemade or storebought
• ▢ 1 1/2 cups shredded Swiss cheese
• ▢ 1 pound deli-sliced pastrami or corned beef
• ▢ 1 cup sauerkraut rinsed
• ▢ 1/2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• ▢ 1/3 cup mayonnaise
• ▢ 2 1/2 tablespoons ketchup
• ▢ 2 tablespoons finely chopped bread-and-butter pickles

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 450F. If using a pizza stone, preheat the oven for 20-30 minutes.
• Divide the pizza dough into 4 even balls. Starting with one ball, roll it on a lightly floured surface into a 9-inch circle. Sprinkle 1/4 of the cheese on half of the dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Layer on 1/4 of the pastrami, followed by 1/4 of the sauerkraut.
• Fold the dough over the filling, then pinch the edges together to seal. Genlty fold the edges over to completely seal the filling. Brush the top with olive oil and cut 3 vents in the center. Repeat with the remaining ingredients.
• Bake until browned, 18-22 minutes. Let cool briefly.
• To make the sauce, combine the mayonnaise and ketchup. Stir in the pickles. Serve the sauce along side the calzone for dipping.

Recipe Notes:

slightly adapted from Every Day with Rachael Ray March 2008