Veggie Sausage Pizza Turnovers make a great side dish to accompany any Italian meal. Firm, flaky crust wrapped around a filling of warm, cheesy goodness.
Veggie Sausage Pizza Turnovers are a hybrid of an empanada, a samosa, & a calzone. Best of both worlds really. I made these for my weekly Game of Thrones get together along with my Pine Nut Pesto Pasta. The reviews were positive.
I did use real cheese in this and an an egg wash, but it can easily be modified to vegan. I used 2 different kinds of dough. Goya empanada rounds & Rich Products puff pastry squares. Regular empanada rounds and pastry squares. If you are trying to keep the fat content down, stick with the rounds, and maybe try a reduced fat cheese.
This is another recipe you can throw your personal touch into. Add cooked vegetarian beef crumbles or diced mushrooms & peppers. These work best when drier ingredients are used so the crust doesn’t get soggy.
Yet more choices for fillings:
• Traditional Spinach-Ricotta – Sautéed onion and garlic, wilted spinach, mozzarella, ricotta, and tomato sauce. A handful of diced veggie sausage is never amiss in this one.
• Wilted Greens – Kale, chard, beet greens, wilted with garlic and red pepper flakes. A little ricotta or Monterey jack helps balance it out.
• Indian Curry – Curries thick with chickpeas, bits of seitan, and wilted spinach also make good filling. Not the sauce though. Use a slotted spoon to get the chunks. Too much sauce = soggy dough.
Veggie Sausage Pizza Turnovers would be perfect to make in big batches and take to parties as a little hand-held snack. I run around a lot trying to get things done, so having food that I can grab and go is super convenient.
If you want to get hardcore, you can make your own flaky puff pastry dough:
| Ingredients: • 2 cups flour • 16 Tablespoons unsalted butter (225g) • 2/3 cup ice-cold water |
Mix 1/4 cup of flour with 14 tablespoons of cool butter to make a smooth paste. Shape into a square approximately 1/2 inch (1-1/2 cm) thick. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes. Separately, mix the cold water, 2 tablespoons of butter, and the remaining 1-3/4 cup of flour (some recipes add 1/4 teaspoon of salt). This elastic, shiny dough is called a détrempe. Knead for about one minute. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes. Refrigerating the dough relaxes the gluten and makes it possible to roll the dough without breaking it. On a lightly floured board, roll out the water-based dough (détrempe) to a thickness of 3/8 inch (1 cm). Place the butter dough square on the water-based dough and wrap the ends of the water-based dough to enclose the butter dough in an envelope. Roll out the dough envelope to 3/8 inch (1 cm) thickness and fold in thirds like a business letter.
I like to keep it as simple as possible though. I’m not above using quality store-bought dough. If I had the time I would make everything from absolute scratch, but I have adulting that needs to be done. Let’s get onto the recipe then, shall we?
- 1 pkg. empanada rounds (10 rounds)
- 1 pkg. pastry squares (10 squares)
- 1 pkg. vegetarian Italian sausage - chopped small
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- 2 tsp. olive oil
- 1 small sweet onion - diced
- ¾ cup hash brown potatoes
- 8 oz. can sliced olives - drained - patted dry
- ½ cup shredded mozzarella (or parmesan) cheese
- 2 tsp. fresh chopped basil
- 1 tsp. sweet paprika - divided
- salt & black pepper to taste
- Take dough out of the freezer to thaw
- Pre-heat oven to 400
- Add oil to heated skillet
- Add potatoes and cook until browned on bottom
- Flip potatoes and add onions to same skillet
- In mixing bowl combine all ingredients except ½ tsp. sweet paprika
- On lightly floured surface, lay out dough
- Add one Tbsp. of mixture to the middle of the dough
- Use egg wash or water to run along the inside edge of the round (or square)
- Fold over and squeeze edges together
- Use tines of fork to crimp edges & to poke holes in the center of each
- Place on a greased or lined baking sheet
- Brush each with egg wash and sprinkle sweet paprika
- Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until golden
Cooking tunes – Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros: Streetcore / Big Black: Atomiser
Writing tunes – The Jesus Lizard: Goat / Hüsker Dü: Zen Arcade
