greek calzones

when we were in pittsburgh for memorial day my friend nikki made pizzas for us for dinner one night. one version - my favorite - was a greek pizza, and it was awesome. i've decided to recreate those, but as calzones, and then share the recipe with you.

ingredients:
1 cup of marinated artichoke hearts, roughly chopped
1/2 cup of black olives, sliced
banana peppers sliced (to taste)
4 oz. tomato paste
1 teaspoon za'atar powder
practical gourmet pizza crust recipe (i used unbleached white flour for these calzones, but wheat is fine too)
4 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
2 oz. mozzarella cheese (optional)

directions:
prepare the pizza crust per the instructions, but before putting it in the bowl to rise, evenly separate it into 4 balls. preheat oven to 425, and allow dough to rise for abvout 15 minutes on top of the oven (the heat will force it some).

meanwhile, chop the artichoke hearts and slice the olives. mix the tomato paste and za'atar powder together in a small bowl, and then crumble the feta into another small bowl.

once the dough is risen, flatten the four balls out into four discs and place them onto parchment paper. smear (such a good word to use in cooking!) half of the discs with the tomato mixture, and then top with 1/4 of the artichokes and olives and add banana peppers to taste. top with 1/4 of the feta and a little mozzarella (this just make it "cheesy" since the feta won't melt.) fold over the top half of the disc and pinch the top edge and bottom edge with your fingers. srpinkle with salt and repeat 3 more times.

pop into the oven and bake for 15 minutes (rotate the pans halfway through if you are baking all four of them on two racks). enjoy!

notes:
this calzone is tangy and salty and delicious. i mixed some additional za'atar powder into some extra virgin olive oil and dipped my crust into it. vj dipped his into tomato sauce.