12 Calzone Recipes For When You’re Craving Pizza (But Don’t Want to Share) (2024)

Buffalo Chicken Calzones

Two party menu favorites—pizza and Buffalo chicken wings—team up in this surprisingly easy calzone recipe. The secret to its swift 40-minute timeline? Leftover or rotisserie chicken. If you have that, a block of cream cheese, and some condiments hanging out from the last time you whipped up wings, chances are high that you have everything required to spice up your supper menu.

Air-Fryer Calzones

You’re just 6 ingredients and less than 30 minutes away from adding these golden-brown beauties to your table. The convection heat of an air-fryer crisps up the exterior of the crust beautifully while the chicken, spinach, marinara, and cheese gets warm and bubbly inside. While these are terrific as-is, we think a side extra red sauce for dunking makes the finished product even better.

Shredded Beef and Caramelized Onion Stromboli

In the era of the hit TV show The Bear, Chicago Italian beef sandwiches are having a renaissance. Since we can’t get enough, we took that concept—complete with pickled pepperoncini, beef roast, caramelized onions, and cheese—and stuffed it inside a stromboli. Serve warm and with a side of au jus for dunking.

Spinach and Beef Calzones

Lasagna-lovers, this is the calzone you’ve been craving. Featuring a savory, satisfying mix of mushrooms and ground beef, marinara, spinach, garlic, and ricotta and mozzarella cheeses, this tastes a lot like the classic Italian casserole. No need to fuss with slippery noodles and layering; pizza dough steps in to cover the carbs.

Roasted Veggie Calzones

Put your farmers market bounty (or crisper drawer extras) to terrific use in these vegetable-packed pockets. Tender, quick-cooking options like eggplant, summer squash, mushrooms, and bell peppers work best, but you could also swap in any roasted vegetables cooked until tender. (Use our ultimate roasted vegetable guide to time it right.) With just cheese and fresh rosemary joining the party, this is a recipe for calzone purists. No sauce is in sight!

Cast-Iron Skillet Calzone

Think of this cast-iron skillet like an upside-down deep-dish pizza. Psst…the fact that the crust is stretched on top means it’s even easier to prepare—and poses far less risk of any soggy dough. Our “toppings” are inspired by supreme pizza, but feel free to mix things up, trading sausage for ground beef, white sauce for red, or any veggies you’d like to use up in place of the bell peppers and mushrooms.

Cheesy Pork Roast Calzone

Our fan-favorite Italian Pork Roast recipe asks for just 20 minutes of hands-on time, and yields 11 servings of succulent, meaty goodness that’s worthy of five stars, according to BHG fans. If you tire of leftovers on their own, transform them into a cozy, cheesy calzone. With that pork, a jar of marinara sauce, purchased pizza dough, an egg, and Parmesan cheese, you can have a dinner that offers a nod to the original—just even better—in a mere 30 minutes.

Make-Ahead Chicken-Spinach Calzones

Assemble and partially bake the leftover turkey or chicken and spinach pizza pockets, then freeze for up to a month. Then all that’s left to do is thaw overnight in the fridge and bake for a final 15 minutes.

Smoky Calzones

No fancy smoker or equipment is required to make these beefy calzones worthy of their “smoky” moniker. Smoked gouda cheese lends that element subtly. In tandem with shredded Parmesan, oregano, and beef bolognese, the filling for these semi-homemade calzones offers a big punch of Northern Italian flair.

Related: Our Best Classic Italian Dishes to Bring Home the Flavors of Italy

Ham and Cheese Calzones

Skip the sub shop. All of the same building blocks (melty sliced Swiss, whole grain mustard, and ham) star inside these savory hand pies. A pinch of caraway seeds offer nutty, bittersweet complexity that help these store-bought pizza dough-surrounded calzones taste far more complex than their 5-ingredient recipe and 35-minute timeline might let on.

Simple Stromboli

Ask any Philadelphian and a stromboli is like a supreme sandwich; you can encapsulate even more fixings in a bread exterior that keeps it all neatly tucked inside. The concept is essentially the same as a sauceless calzone. Here, we call for deli ham and turkey, shredded mozzarella, fresh spinach, bell peppers, and kalamata olives for an ooey-gooey, savory, salty, and all-around irresistible meal.

Tomato Pizza Rolls

Part yeast bread, part pizza, and fully party-worthy, we like to think of these Mediterranean rolls like peek-a-boo calzones. (If a double-crust sweet pie is a calzone, consider these like a galette!) Start by shaping the dough and allowing it to rise, then top single servings of that crust with a chunky tomato sauce, prosciutto, and fresh basil before baking until lightly brown.