Leftover Ham Calzone Recipe

Another recipe I created during the Cook’s Ham blogger conference was Ham Calzones. I already have a recipe for prosciutto calzones on here, and this recipe is not very different. In fact, you’ll want to visit that recipe to find out how to make your own homemade dough… because store-bought dough just isn’t the same thing.

Leftover Ham Calzone Ingredients

• Leftover ham, diced or shredded
• 1 lb pizza dough (see recipe)
• 1 small container of reduced fat or part skim ricotta cheese
• 8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese, reduced fat
• Marinara sauce or pizza sauce (optional)
• Corn meal or flour
• 1 egg, beaten in a small bowl

Leftover Ham Calzone Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 with pizza stone in the oven.
2. Sprinkle corn meal or flour over the surface of your pizza peel so that the dough won’t stick. Place ball of pizza dough on the corn meal and roll into a circle of uniform thickness. (Alternately, you can divide the dough into the number of individual servings you would like to make and repeat the process for each ball of dough.) Try moving the peel to make sure the dough “shimmies” on top of the corn meal.
3. Spread ricotta cheese evenly across the surface of the dough, leaving approximately ½ inch of dough clean around the perimeter so you’ll be able to seal the crust.
4. Carefully approximate the halfway mark in the ricotta circle you just created. Pile as much shredded mozzarella and ham as you’d like (and will fit) on top of the ricotta on the half of the calzone closest to you. It is very important that the ham is cut up into bite-size pieces – or smaller than bite-size pieces – because you’re not going to want to have to worry about tearing off bits of ham with your teeth.
5. Fold the other half of the dough over the half that you just piled with fillings. Press the bare edges of the dough together firmly with your fingers to seal. Fold over the sealed edges and press again for good measure.
6. Poke holes into the top of your calzone to allow steam to vent.
7. With a pastry brush, brush the top of the calzone with your egg wash (the beaten egg in the bowl). DO NOT brush the bottom side of the calzone, or it may stick to the pizza stone while it cooks, and it’s very difficult to get unstuck when you’re ready to eat!
8. Transfer the calzone from the peel to the stone in the oven carefully. (This is why we checked to make sure there was enough corn meal to allow the dough to shimmy, so we knew it wouldn’t stick when we put it on the stone in the oven!)
9. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, or when the top of the calzone is golden brown. Remove from the oven and slice into individual servings with a pizza wheel.
10. Serve with a small dipping bowl filled with pizza sauce or marinara sauce that has been warmed in the microwave or on the stove top, if desired.

Calzones can be eaten with a fork and knife or picked up and eaten by hand. Unless you cut the ham up very small, I would highly recommend using a fork and knife to make sure you don’t end up with a giant piece of ham in your mouth.

Christina Gleason (976 Posts)

That’s me: Christina Gleason. I’m a writer, editor, and disability advocate. I'm a multiply disabled autistic lady doing my best in this world built for abled people. I’m a geek for grammar, fantasy, and casual gaming. I hate vegetables. I cannot reliably speak, so I’ll happily conduct business over email or messaging instead.