Sausage & Pepper Calzones

Quick and delicious lunch or dinner with an amazing garlic crust and stuffed center. These will fill you up and leave you and your family satisfied.

If you like this, you might like Air Fryer Calzone or Air Fryer Mini Pizza.

Sausage & Pepper Calzones ~ Quick, Delicious Calzones

Weekends are perfect for making homemade bread and you are going to love the easy garlic crust I made for the Sausage & Pepper Calzones. Of course the filling options are endless and you should use what you like and improvise with what you have on hand.  This is one of those meals that's great to make ahead and you can pack the leftovers for lunch.

Ingredients Needed:

for filling:

• Italian Sausage (I used Johnsonville)
• sliced mini sweet peppers
• medium onion, sliced
• whole black olives, sliced
• shredded cheese, I used Colby-Jack but Mozzarella would be good too

for crust:

• all purpose flour (King Arthur)
• Red Star Platinum yeast
• salt
• sugar
• warm water (110°)
• Star Olive Oil with Garlic

for sauce:

• diced tomatoes
• butter
• salt
• dried oregano
• sugar

How To Make:

for crust:

Add 2 cups of flour to a large mixing bowl, stir in yeast, sugar and salt.  

Add water and olive oil and stir to combine.  

Add additional flour ¼ to ½ cup at a time until dough comes together and pulls away from bowl.  

Cover and let rest 30 minutes.

Punch down dough and pour onto a floured surface and knead 5 minutes adding flour as needed.  

Dough should be elastic but no longer sticky.

Pinch dough into 12 equal pieces.

for filling:

While dough rises prepare filling.

Place a large skillet over medium-high heat.  

Remove casings from sausage and add to the skillet.  

Using a spatula or wooden spoon, chop the sausage into small pieces as it cooks.  

Continue to cook, stirring occasionally to brown all sides of sausage, about 8 to 10 minutes.  

Remove sausage to a bowl and set aside, leaving drippings in the pan.

Return skillet to cook top and add peppers and onions, cook stirring often until onions are translucent and just start to brown.

Stir in sausage and olives.

Remove from heat and set aside.

to assemble:

Roll each dough ball into a 5 to 6 inch circle, spoon in about ¼ cup of filling and top with about 1 tablespoon of cheese. Fold dough over filling and pinch to seal.

Place on a greased or lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Repeat with remaining ingredients.

Bake at 400°F. for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

for sauce:

Add tomatoes to a food processor or blender and process for about 30 seconds.  

Add tomatoes and remaining ingredients to a small saucepan and simmer while calzones are baking.

Serve calzones with sauce.

*depending on how much filling  you add to your calzones, you may have filling left over.  I had about 1 to 2 cups left and I added it to breakfast hash and it was fantastic! You could also add it to an omelet.

IF YOU LOVE THIS  RECIPE AS MUCH AS I DO, PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT AND A FIVE STAR REVIEW, AND BE SURE TO HELP ME SHARE ON PINTEREST AND FACEBOOK!