A calzone is a folded pizza that is stuffed.

What makes a good calzone, is a calzone that is cheesy and not too wet or saucy.

What a calzone allows you to do is keep the stuffing moist.

If the ingredients were on top of the pizza, they would dry out very quickly, and it wouldn't

be the same.

A friend of mine told me his grandfather's calzone recipe.

The recipe was well put together, with a nice stuffing that was a little bit different.

I thought it was just perfect.

So I said, "OK, let's put it on the menu and see how people like it."

Rocco is his name, so I called it "Rocky's Calzone," which has nothing to do with Rocky

Balboa.

No, it's a guy from Brooklyn.

The way we do the calzone here at Motorino is first we make the filling.

Sweet sausage and spicy sausage both get rendered in a pot.

Once we have the sausage fully cooked we drain the fat out.

We return the crumbled, cooked sausage into the pot and then we'll add eggs.

Then we'll cook it on medium heat until the eggs are scrambled, so essentially what you

have is eggs and sausage scramble.

That's when you add a good amount of Pecorino, which is has the highest flavor note, and

some parsley for the color.

Stir it in and that's your filling.

We use the same dough as the pizza.

The most important thing is timing: how you time your fermentation, how you time your

resting.

You open the calzone the same way you open a pizza.

Then you place the stuffing on one side.

Then you fold the other side on top.

You seal the edge with your fingers.

Then you put a little bit of garlic, more Pecorino, and olive oil—just before it goes

into the oven just to give it a crispier top.

Then you put a little bit of garlic, more Pecorino, and olive oil—just before it goes

into the oven just to give it a crispier top.

We use a regular Neapolitan oven, so wood-fired.

And that's it.

That's your calzone.

I grew up in Belgium and I ate a lot of Italian food, especially growing up in an Italian

family.

I thought that pizza was something that was perfect for me.

I knew that a pizzeria done right had a good chance to land successfully pretty much anywhere.

In Italy, you go to the pizzeria that you like and you go over and over because it works

for you.

That's what my aim is.

I don't aim to be the best in the world.

I just aim to be a good pizzeria that works.