Nothing beats the mouth-watering anticipation of cutting into a perfectly baked, golden brown turkey on Thanksgiving Day. It’s the ultimate holiday meal, filled with your choice of juicy meats, rich vegetables, and creamy carbs — no wonder we always feel like we could burst at the end! Once the football game ends and the dishes are cleared (and we’ve had our fill of pie!), we get to enjoy amazing leftovers all weekend long for the gift that keeps on giving. If you are looking for a creative way to serve up the extra turkey this year, let Valerie Bertinelli help. She has a unique calzone recipe that uses your leftovers to serve up the most delicious (and super easy) meal, which is a lot more fun than reheating slices of turkey in the microwave.
“Valerie uses leftover Thanksgiving turkey, creamy ricotta, melty mozzarella and flavorful pesto to create calzones you’ll be craving year-round!” Food Network wrote in a caption for the video posted Oct. 27.
The ingredients call for typical calzone items — like pizza dough and cheese — with a few notable twists. Namely, leftover light and dark turkey meat, pesto, and mushrooms.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=CVmHDR1I0Z8%3Ffeature%3Doembed
“Today we’re making Turkey, Pesto, and Veggie Calzones,” Bertinelli says in a Food Network video. “We’re using leftover Thanksgiving turkey. They are loaded with hearty veggies, a creamy, herby pesto sauce, and wrapped up in a store-bought pizza dough so they come together really quickly. They’re perfect for those post-Thanksgiving meals where you want a satisfying dinner with minimal effort.”
First, make the topping in a skillet, adding in ingredients as you go. The leftover turkey meat and a couple other ingredients go in at the very end. Next, make the pizza dough into a 13-inch round. Scoop the dough in, then seal the edges and bake until golden brown. Bertinelli recommends cutting each one into pieces and serving while hot.
The finished calzone looks amazing. It’s a far cry from the typical pepperoni-and-black-olive stuffing, and we absolutely love it!
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Others do too. “Oh I love this idea. What a great idea for turkey leftovers,” one person commented on the video. “Heck yeah I’m making it💗,” added another.
“Excellent recipe, thank you Valerie,” another wrote. “I like the thought of doing a chicken pot pie filling. A huge amount of credit for working the ricotta into the recipe. This is so easy to swap out veggies for whatever you have in your fridge. Squash. Spinach. Oh hell… why not some leftover stuffing and gravy? Served with a side salad, glass of wine, & a movie in front of the tv.”
Sounds like the perfect evening in!
Get Bertinelli’s full Turkey, Pesto, and Veggie Calzones recipe here.
Before you go, check out our slideshow below:
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