The Best Calzone Recipe: Fried Pizza (panzerotti)

I know what you are thinking: the original Italian calzone recipe expects you to bake it, not to fry. And this is actually true. But to let you try this alternative Italian delicious dish I had to find the closest well-known pizza dough and introduce you to a less known but yet delicious and typical Italian pizza: the fried pizza. Even though, in this article I will explain you more about “Panzerotto“, a popular Italian street food, especially in the southern regions like Puglia. They are similar to calzone but smaller in size and of course fried. And at the end of this article you will understand why the best calzone recipe is fried

This is once again a type of pizza recipe that you can prepare at home with very low efforts.

What is a calzone? What is a fried pizza? Welcome Panzerotti!

Before we dig into this amazing recipe let me give you a bit of background. Because you know I like to stay connected to the authentic Italian pizza traditions and I want you to know more about the Italian food culture.

Fried pizza is very often found in Naples. It’s one of the special dish you can try in famous places in city center. I talked extensively about it in my previous article about the Neapolitan pizza experience. But there is more. The habit of frying the pizza dough does not belong to Naples only. In other parts of Italy is very common to fry food, especially in the South. And of course pizza dough is no exception.

The recipe we are going to prepare today is my version of the typical fried pizza you can eat in Bari and in the Puglia region. We call this typical Italian street food “Panzerotti”. Hard to translate in English. But I think it’s meaning is derived by the shape of this fried pizza that when thrown in hot oil is swollen and becomes like a big swollen belly (“panza” is a very popular way to call the belly in the South of Italy).

Deep-frying panzerotti gives them a crispy exterior and a soft, melting interior. This cooking method also added to their appeal as a street food, being easy to eat on the go. Over time, as the popularity of panzerotti spread, variations began to emerge, including different types of fillings and even baked versions.

Today, panzerotti remain a beloved part of Italian street food culture, particularly in Puglia and the southern regions, but they have also gained popularity in other parts of Italy and around the world, often served in Italian restaurants and at food festivals.

What makes this fried calzone special is the preparation using Semolina flour and potato in the dough. But let’s dig more precisely into the interesting part.

Ingredients for the best fried calzone recipe

This is the list of ingredients to prepare 6 fried calzone of about 70 grams each (yes, they are small):

Let me spend a few words about the flour. As I said before, this calzone recipe is meant to be prepared with 2 flour types: tipo 0 or 00 and semolina flour. I love to mix them equally, so I use half semolina and half tipo 0.

For the yeast I am using the fresh one. You can use dry yeast of instant dry yeast. But in this case you want to divide the quantity indicated above by 2.5. I normally don’t like to use any dry yeast for small batches of flour. I found dry yeast to be less effective and predictable when used in low quantity. However, I know that in several parts of the world is not easy to find fresh yeast so I wanted to let you know that you can still prepare a panzerotti recipe without fresh yeast.

One more ingredient that this recipe requires is smashed potatoes. The weight I indicated above is for the potato after it was boiled. Make sure you don’t add too much potatoes as they alter the final hydration.

Last but not least. To prepare these panzerotti or fried pizza or fried calzone, you will need to consider about 24 hours of total time. So it is better if you plan this recipe ahead of time.

Kneading with stand mixer and first fermentation

I am going to use and recommend to prepare this fried calzone recipe with a stand mixer for pizza. It will make your life easier, but it is not mandatory to use one. Actually you can mix by hands without any problem. This Italian calzone recipe does not require high hydration so is very easy to prepare by hands, like my grandma was doing.

TIP: as we are going to use a potato in this recipe, make sure you boil one with its peel in abundant water (without salt) and well before you start to prepare the recipe. In fact you need to boil, then slightly cool it, remove the peel and then smash it:

Then you can start weighing ingredients one at a time.

How to knead a panzerotto with a stand mixer

Next step is to put all ingredients but water in the bowl:

We will start the initial kneading of calzone recipe using a flat beater. This will help us with water absorption speed as well as good ingredients mix. Using a flat beater is particularly useful also if you are working with a small amount of ingredients, like in the case of this recipe.

So, install the flat beater, close the stand mixer, let it spin at low speed and start pouring water:

When the dough absorbed all water we can change the flat beater for a standard dough hook. In the pictures below you can notice the consistency of the dough just before the hook change.

Let the stand mixer for pizza spin at a medium speed and when the fried calzone dough (panzerotto) has a well developed gluten mesh we are ready to add a kitchen spoon of extra virgin olive oil.

Don’t be in rush when adding oil! Release a few drops at a time. Then continue the kneading process until your dough is a bit smoother like the one in picture below. I also want you to notice that in this panzerotto dough recipe we don’t create a super smooth dough like we generally do for a pizza. And that’s absolutely fine.

We are now ready to move to the next phase: the bulk fermentation.

Panzerotto bulk proofing

The bulk proofing of this fried calzone requires two phases. The initial one at room temperature and then cold proofing in fridge.

So, as a first step let’s move our dough from the stand mixer bowl to a kitchen countertop or any other surface that you may have for kneading. Then using a bit of slap and fold and rounding we create our bulk dough:

Then we move it in a oiled box where it will rest for 2 hours at room temperature and then for 16 hours in the fridge.

And that’s it for now. We just need to wait a total of 18 hours before we can do the portioning.

Calzone dough portioning and second fermentation

After the bulk fermentation, it is time to take the dough out of the fridge to prepare our small 70 grams calzone dough balls. You don’t need to wait for the dough to come to room temperature, you can work the dough directly when taken out of the fridge.

The process to follow is very similar (if not identical) to the one to follow to prepare a Neapolitan pizza. So just move the dough on a working surface turning upside down the proofing box and start dividing the dough into smaller pieces of 70 grams each:

Then once again you want to create the dough balls using a bit of slap and fold plus rounding.

Once done, move everything in a proofing box for Neapolitan pizza (if you have one, otherwise you can use whatever makes sense to you). And let the dough proofing for about 5 hours.

And of course you are now one step closer to the final step: frying calzone.

The fried calzone

To eat panzerotti you need to fry them 🙂

So let’s start warming up some good quality seeds oil in a pan with high borders or a frying pan. Ideally you want to use a kitchen thermometer to measure the oil temperature. You want to have 180C.

When the oil is almost at the right temperature you can start taking the dough ball one at a time to prepare the fried calzone. Here is the full process with pictures.

And now you are ready to fry in oil:

And here we go. Are you ready to taste it?

I am pretty confident you will enjoy this recipe! And if you found this one useful, feel free to support me with a coffee or buying my recommended pizza kitchen tools!