22 hours Ago By [email protected] (Joe Hoeffner)
If you've ever set foot inside a pizzeria, you've probably seen a calzone. You know, the alarmingly large turnovers that are stuffed with meat, cheese, and vegetables before being baked until the crust turns golden brown. Perhaps you've even eaten one, maybe while using a knife and a fork to keep all the gooey, melty goodness from spilling all over you.
At the very least, you must've seen the episode of "Seinfeld" where George Costanza gets his boss — George Steinbrenner, owner of the New York Yankees — addicted to them. If you've ever had a good calzone — with a crisp crust and gloriously stretchy cheese — you'll concur with the fictional Steinbrenner's conclusion: They're a helluva thing. But where did calzones come from? Although Italian cuisine often emphasizes tradition, some of its most popular dishes — including carbonara — are no older than the 20th century.
(The same can be said for .) You might think a pizza joint staple like the calzone would be another example of this phenomenon, but you'd be wrong: Calzones can actually be traced back to the early 18th century, a time when Italy was a bunch of different kingdoms unhappily sharing a boot-shaped peninsula. The calzone originated as street food to go You may not know it from the colossal size of modern calzones, where molten cheese and steaming sauce cascade from every bite, but the calzone actually originated in the city of Naples as convenient, portable street food.
For this reason, traditional calzones don't contain any kind of sauce; it runs the risk of dripping all over you while you're eating. (Ironically, the dish to which the calzone served as a handheld alternative, pizza, is arguably easier to eat on the go these days than a calzone — just give it the New York fold, .) As you might imagine, these early calzones were smaller than the doughy monstrosities you'll find in pizzeria displays today.
Originally, they were just stuffed with cheese, olives, and . But as time went on, there was innovation in the world of calzones: Tomatoes, eggplant, pepperoni, and meatballs have all been placed inside the crust's snug embrace. So why not honor the spirit of the dish and pick up a calzone to go.
Just remember: If you order a modern calzone, you might have to do some bicep curls to warm up first. Recommended.
