Homemade Calabrian street food: spicy calzones and sardine-style swivels

 

Raise your hand if you have not tried your hand at preparing some bread-making in recent weeks! Let's face it, the days of quarantine pushed us to experiment with new recipes to test our skills in the kitchen. 

But if for you pizza and bread have no more secrets, fasten your aprons and get ready to make your taste buds travel to the hottest region of southern Italy! So, if you are willing to add some chili in the kitchen, you definitely can't miss the spicy breeches and sardine rolls. These two typical Calabrian recipes, even before being a symbol of street food, are the emblem of home cooking, simple and tasty. Both are very versatile and very popular in any season, because they can be consumed for lunch, dinner or as an aperitif. Are you curious to try them? 

Spicy calzones: an emblem of Calabrian street food… to be prepared at home! 

In a previous article we have already talked about the calzone, or at least one in particular: that of the pizzeria La Romana of Crotone, defined as the "best street food in Calabria". The calzone has a simple dough, similar to that of pizza, and a filling consisting of tomato sauce, chilli and plenty of mozzarella. Not infrequently, at the pizzerias that offer it, it is also possible to find the addition of spicy dried sausage in the filling, which gives more substance and character. The dough then comes fried in boiling oil, until it reaches a perfect browning. 

We know what you're thinking: calzone combines two of the most popular things in the kitchen, pizza and fried food. Indeed, for this reason alone, it cannot be missing in the range of your favorite home recipes. Fortunately, the spicy calzone is very easy to replicate at home: just have the right equipment, have a little patience, have a minimum of manual skills and you're done! 

The recipe for spicy fried calzone

Let's see together how to make classics at home fried spicy calzones. The doses of this recipe are suitable for making about 10 breeches. 

Ingredients (for about 10 calzones)

For the dough

• 500 g of 00 flour
• 250 ml of just warm water
• 6/7 grams of dehydrated brewer's yeast 
• a low teaspoon of sugar 
• 2 low teaspoons of salt 
• to taste of extra virgin olive oil

For the stuffing

• 250 g of diced mozzarella
• 150 g of tomato sauce
• to taste of hot pepper flakes
• salt to taste
• to taste of extra virgin olive oil

To fry

• peanut oil to taste

Method

1. Mix in a bowl flour, sugar and yeast and form the classic fountain in the center. 
2. In a cup, combine the warm water and salt and start adding the liquids to the flour. If the dough is too hard, gradually add a little water, always warm, to make it more elastic. Transfer everything on a pastry board, continuing to knead for about 10 minutes.   
3. Now transfer the dough into a bowl and cover with a damp cloth, leaving it to rise in a warm place until its volume has doubled (it may take from 3 to 5 hours). 
4. Meanwhile, prepare the ingredients for the stuffing: cut the mozzarella into cubes and add the salt, a drop of oil and the chilli pepper to the sauce to flavor it. 
5. Once the leavening is complete, take the dough and, after having worked it lightly with your hands, divide it into ten small pieces. 
6. Leave the balls on the pastry board, covered with a cloth and let them rise again for about an hour. 
7. After the time of the second leavening, take the balls of dough, roll them out and put the tomato sauce in the center and a few cubes of mozzarella. 
8. Close the dough in a crescent making sure to seal the edges with a fork, so that the filling does not come out during cooking. 
9. When all the trousers are ready, start heating the oil to reach the perfect temperature. The ideal pan to use is steel, with high edges and a thin bottom. If you are using peanut oil as directed and have a cooking thermometer, make sure you do not exceed the smoke point of this oil. around 180 °, otherwise you risk not having an adequate cooking or a perfect browning. 
10. When the oil is hot, start soaking two breeches at a time, taking care of cook them for about 5 minutes, turning them halfway through cooking. 
11. When they have reached the ideal color, remove the trousers from the pan and place them on some paper for fried food, in order to absorb excess oil. 
12. Wait a few minutes before tasting them: the main characteristic of the calzone is that its inside, during frying, reaches very high temperatures, so it is better to let it rest for a few minutes before biting into it. Your trousers are ready to be enjoyed! 

Sardella swirls: small in shape, big in taste 

More than a real street food, the spicy sardine swirls they are a delicacy that cannot be missing on the tables of the holidays and, in general, of the classic repatriation at home with friends and relatives. They present themselves as gods small golden bread dough buns, cooked in the oven and served hot, and have a simple dough, made very tasty by the presence of pilchard, the only ingredient for the filling of this preparation. Of the pilchard we have already spoken to you: it is one preserves typical Calabrian, and more specifically of the Cirò Marina area (KR), prepared with ice fish, chilli, salt and fennel seeds. The preserve, which usually lends itself to being consumed in combination with extra virgin olive oil and chopped Tropea Onion, is an excellent condiment for canapés and focaccia, but it can also be used to fill all kinds of bread products. 

The recipe for preparing sardella rolls at home is, like that of calzone, very simple: the baking in fact, this preparation is also suitable for those who want to avoid the heaviness of fried foods. 

The recipe for sardella swivels

Let's see now how to prepare some very tasty ones sardella rolls, obviously spicy. The advice we give you is to prepare the dough the day before or in the morning for the evening, in order to have a leavening of at least 12 hours. 

Ingredients

• 600 g of 00 flour
• 300 ml of warm water
• 1 sachet of dry yeast 
• 1 teaspoon of sugar 
• 2 teaspoons of salt 
• to taste of extra virgin olive oil
• 150 g of spicy sardella 

Method 

1. Put the flour in a large bowl e add yeast, sugar and salt and mix. 
2. Just heat the water, which should be slightly warm (not hot, otherwise it risks "killing" the yeast). Gradually add the water to the mixture, starting to knead. 
3. When the dough is compact enough, transfer it to a pastry board, continuing to knead for about 10 minutes. 
4. Transfer the dough to a clean bowl with a sprinkling of flour on the bottom, make a nice one incision on top and cover everything with a damp cloth. If you opt for a 24-hour leavening, moisten the tea towel often with water if it dries. 
5. Start preparing the seasoning: in a bowl, put the sardella, which must be soft and quite greasy to be easily spread on the dough. If you use fresh sardine, you will need to add a lot of oil, while if you use the one in a glass jar, you will need to add less. The final consistency must in any case be that of one "Spreadable cream". 
6. After rising, the dough is ready to be rolled out: take it and divide it into three pieces. Roll out each piece with a rolling pin to form a rectangle then, with the help of a spoon, pour a little sardine over the dough and spread it until almost everything is covered, however, leaving a strip on one of the wide edges of your pasta rectangle “dry”.  
7. At this point, roll the dough starting from the wide edge covered with sardella, and closing it on the empty edge. 
8. Cut the dough into small rolls using a sharp knife and place them on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Brush the dry surface of the swivels with a thin layer of oil with a kitchen brush. 
9. Let the sandwiches rest on the plate for half an hour, taking advantage of this time to do heat the oven well to 230 °. 
10. Put the swivels in the oven and cook for 15 minutes or in any case until golden brown. Your sardine rolls are ready to be tasted and… made to disappear! 

Which of the two recipes we have proposed you are most curious to try: spicy calzones or sardella swivels? To you the choice! 

 

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