The Bensonhurst Half-Moon Calzone
Chapter 4 — Slice Shop Specials
The American slice shop calzone is a magnificent descendant of the Neapolitan original, a dense, structural marvel built for the working class. In Brooklyn, the sauce is strictly banished to the side, making way for a fiercely guarded trinity of drained ricotta, low-moisture mozzarella, and sharp pecorino, sealed in a highly fermented dough engineered for foldability. Baking this half-moon beast on a home steel requires respect for thermodynamics: a brutal initial blast of heat to blister the crust, followed by a merciful temperature drop to melt the rich, molten core without incinerating the bottom.
Before you start
Drain the ricotta.
Place the ricotta in a cheesecloth-lined sieve over a bowl and let it drain overnight in the refrigerator.
Mix and cold-ferment the dough.
Combine the flour, gluten, ice water, salt, oil, malt, and yeast in a stand mixer, knead until smooth, then divide into four 250-gram balls, sealing them in deli containers to ferment in the refrigerator for 48 to 72 hours.
Ingredients
- bread flour590 g
- vital wheat gluten10 g
- ice water384 g
- fine sea salt13 g
- olive oil18 g
- diastatic malt powder9 g
- instant dry yeast2 g
- whole milk ricotta340 g
- low-moisture whole milk mozzarella340 g
- Pecorino Romano40 g
- black pepper1 tsp
- extra-virgin olive oil1 tbsp
- coarse salt1 pinch
- semolina flour2 tbsp
- marinara sauce1 cup
Method
- 01
Temper the fermented dough.
Remove the dough balls from the refrigerator exactly two hours before baking to ensure the gluten relaxes and doesn't snap back during stretching.
- 02
Saturate the baking steel with heat.
Position a baking steel on the middle-upper rack of your oven and preheat to 500°F for a minimum of 60 minutes.
- 03
Stretch the canvas.
Dust a wooden peel generously with a mix of semolina and bread flour, then gently stretch a dough ball into a 10-inch circle, deliberately avoiding building up the thick outer rim you would normally want for a pizza.
- 04
Layer the cheese filling.
Mound 85 grams of drained ricotta and 85 grams of shredded mozzarella onto the bottom half of the dough circle, topping with a tablespoon of pecorino and black pepper while leaving a strict 1-inch border of bare dough.
- 05
Fold and execute the crimp.
Lightly dampen the 1-inch border with a wet fingertip, fold the top half of the dough over the cheese to meet the bottom edge, and expel any trapped air before trimming exactly 1/4-inch off the curved edge with a pizza wheel to bind the layers.
- 06
Vent and glaze the crust.
Cut two small vertical slits into the top to act as a chimney for the steaming ricotta, then brush the exterior lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with coarse salt.
- 07
Launch and achieve oven spring.
Slide the calzone decisively onto the preheated baking steel and bake at 500°F for exactly 5 minutes to set the bottom crust and initiate leopard-spotting.
- 08
Execute the temperature drop.
Immediately reduce the oven temperature to 450°F and continue baking for another 10 to 12 minutes until the calzone is a burnished golden-brown and the cheese is visibly bubbling through the steam vents.
- 09
Rest the molten core before serving.
Transfer the calzone to a wire rack and let it rest for at least 5 to 10 minutes to prevent a localized flood of molten dairy when sliced, serving it hot with a ramekin of marinara on the side.
Notes
Mastering the dough formula.
The dough utilizes precise baker's percentages to emulate the New York slice shop: 100% flour, 64% hydration, 2.2% salt, 3% oil, 1.5% diastatic malt powder, and just 0.35% instant yeast.
The role of diastatic malt.
Enzymes in the malt break down starches into complex sugars during the long cold ferment, which both feeds the yeast over 72 hours and guarantees deep caramelization in a 500°F home oven.
Avoiding the soggy bottom.
American supermarket ricotta is incredibly wet. Skipping the overnight draining process guarantees that the trapped moisture will steam the interior of the dough, creating an irreparably gummy crumb line.