Spinach Pies !

In my great home state of Rhode Island spinach calzones are frequently referred to as Spinach Pies. I have no understanding of how this came about or for how long its been going on. I just know that they are amazing. Unfortunately when they are made in Rhode Island at great bakeries/delis like DePetrillo's they are bathed in olive oil and have extremely unhealthy ingredients in the, but oh boy are they good.

I decided to spruce them up or make them a little more healthy and also make them in the comfort of my own home. So whenever I get the hankering for some Rhode Island goodness I pull this recipe out and make them at home.

I made the dough from scratch. Check out my pizza dough recipe in a previous post. You can find it under the labels section to the left of this post. There is something magical about making your own dough and rolling/prepping it for your spinach pies or any baked good.

You will want to roll out your dough into 3-4 circles to have ready for stuffing.

Then take 2 boxes of frozen spinach and put them in the microwave until they are soft. Then put the spinach in a tea towel and squeeze all the excess liquid out until it looks like the blob below.



Then lay about a third of the spinach down on half of your circle. Then top with some olives, mozzarella cheese, and some turkey pepperoni.

Then pull the other half over the part you just stuffed and crease it with your fingers along the edges so nothing leaks out like in the picture below. When you fold them over and crease spray PAM or some other equivalent of cooking spray on both sides to give them a nice crispness when they are taken out of the oven. It's not as good as bathing them in olive oil but it does make you feel better for eating one.



Then cook at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes until they are nice and crispy. It may not take the full 20 minutes so be sure to keep an eye on it. Once it gets golden brown on both sides you should be fine to take them out.

Enjoy !!!