Calzone, Stromboli, and Roll: Weehawken Folded Pizza Secrets

Folded pizza, also known as a turnover fill, was invented long before the popular flatbread pizza or NY-Style Pizza. Among the three most popular folded pizzas are calzone, stromboli, and roll. Though they look simple, making stuffed pizza is truly the art of heating and cooling. Folded pizzas share a basic recipe: pizza dough, cheese, and then a variety of fillings and toppings.

We especially enjoy our calzones with sesame seeds. However, as sesame allergies are common, we’ve made it an optional addition. Keeping ingredients fresh and safe from cross-contamination is key to our process, starting from the walk-in cooler to the baking oven.

Many things can go wrong when baking a folded pizza, and each baked unit is a masterpiece. Here are a few challenges:

• Sealing: Sealing the folded pizza is fun, but when baking, melted cheese can overflow, creating a serious mess in the oven and packing materials.
• Dough Thickness: Too thick, and the pizza won’t cook properly; it’ll be doughy. Too thin, and it will burn before the cheese melts.
• Ventilation: It’s essential to poke holes in the dough. If it can’t breathe, it will rupture, making an even bigger mess!

A well-done, crispy Calzone should be golden brown on the bottom and sides -- not charcoal-looking like.

Here's a quick breakdown of the different types of popular folded pizzas:

Calzone

Is Calzone a pizza? You bet! Calzone is a folded pizza, traditionally filled with Mozarella cheese and Ricotta. Calzones are folded and formed into a unique crescent shape. Typically served with a side or two sides of dipping marinara sauce. Many argue that calzone should never be filled with pizza sauce. Well, that's a true fact based on historical heritage and authentic methods but it is still a dogma as some combinations are better with the sauce inside. Here at Anthony Pizza, Weehawken, our calzone comes with Marinara sauce on the side for dipping. 

What's the best Calzone?

There is no correct or wrong way of making this delicious dish but portions and cooking techniques make a difference. The thickness of the dough is a challenge every time. Calzones could take the typical topping for NY-Style pizzas with pepperoni being the most popular. A true fact that calzones are healthier when fillings include veggies: our top pic are Fresh Mushrooms, Onions, Broccoli, and Peppers. Always aim for the healthy pyramid when selecting topping.

The easiest way to make Calzone?

The easiest method to make a calzone is to make the dough at home or buy pizza dough from a supermarket or for better quality dough from your local nearby pizzeria. A 12 oz dough yields an awesome Calzone like the one you see in these photos. Once you get the dough, you hand stretch the dough into a circle, fill up the dough, fold the dough with Mozzarella cheese and Ricotta, and finally apply pressure on the edges to seal it to form the crescent. A fork could be used to seal the edge making a better looking - just don't forget to poke a hole on top for breathing. The best temperature to cook calzone is between 450 and 800 F.   

Calzone Dough

There are many techniques to fold the dough into a Calzone, the easiest is to hand stretch the dough into a circle then fill, fold, then press seal the sides. The critical thing here is to poke a hole on top for breathing

Calzone Delivery

Folded Pizza is much better for delivery than standard NY-Style Pizza. All the filling and the sauce are enclosed within so there are no issues with the sauce or cheese moving during transportation. Also, Folded Pizza being inclosed holds heat for a much longer time

Calzone Meal

We made this Calzone for dining in for one of our frequent customers. We just could not resist taking a picture and sharing it with you. The brownish marble crust looks fantastic.

Cheese Stromboli

Historically Stromboli is folded pizza stuffed with cured meat such as ham and Genoa Salami. Somehow here in the US, Cheese Stromboli became the norm allowing Stromboli lovers to add toppings on demand and customize it to their liking. Some of the combinations we get with Make Your Own Stromboli include Hawaiian with Pineapple, BBQ Chicken, Buffalo Chicken among other tasty and Yammy Strombolis.

• Poking holes is also critical be it stripes or just holes
• Could be cooked on a pizza stone or a pan but the taste will be different

Where did Stromboli come from?

Stromboli is Italian-American from a neighborhood located in South Philly. It was named after the Italian Island/volcano called Mt. Stromboli north of Sicily. 

Italian Roll

Yammy Pepperoni Roll

Rolls fall under the turnover-filled pizza category. Forming a roll requires mastering one of the most difficult Folded pizza stretching techniques. The dough has to be stretched into an egg shape, then place the cheese, the sauce, and whatever topping you have in mind as long as you keep it below 7. Unlike Calzone, Rolled pizza does not require poking holes or breathing slots. The egg-shaped folding keeps the sides open and that is enough. We like to add breathing slots for the look. The popular Rolls we bake are Pepperoni Roll, Chicken Roll, Buffalo Chicken Roll, Veggie Roll among others, we also offer to Make Your Own custom Rolls - be creative we could handle