I had somehow been left with a ball of pizza dough. I didn’t make it and I honestly couldn’t remember how it ended up in my freezer. Possibly from a dinner box I got in. Whatever. I just know I didn’t want to just make a pizza so I decided to make pizza pockets instead. They came out quite well if a little bit rustic looking.

Homemade Pizza Pockets

serves 2 – 3

1 lb pizza dough, store bought or homemade*
1 cup pizza sauce + additional for dipping if desired
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup mixed vegetables like garlic, onions, peppers and mushrooms
1 tsp olive oil
1 egg mixed with 1 TBS water
Parmesan cheese for grating

*thawed if frozen and left to rise until puffy

If you are using store bought dough bring it out of the refrigerator about an hour before you want to start making dinner so it can warm up and rise.
While the dough is warming/rising you can cook the vegetables if using: slice the garlic, onions and peppers into thin pieces. Heat a 8″ fry pan over medium high heat. Add 1 TBS oil and swirl. Drop in the peppers, onions, mushrooms and anything else you might want to put in your pizza pockets. Saute until the vegetables are crisp/tender. Remove from the heat and set aside.
Punch down the dough and let it rest about 5 minutes.

Cut the dough into 4 about equal pieces
Take one piece at a time and roll it out into a rough rectangle, about 5 x 10″
At the center of one half of the rolled dough spread out about 2 TBS of pizza sauce being careful to not get too close to the edge.

Top with about 2 TBS+ of veggies if using

followed by a generous 2 TBS of mozzarella cheese.
Fold the top of the packet over and carefully seal the edges.
Do the same with the other three pieces of dough.
Place the finished pockets on a greased baking sheet and let rest.
Preheat oven to 400
Once the oven reaches temperature brush the pockets with the egg wash and grate a little Parmesan cheese over top

Cut a couple of holes in the top of the pocket

Bake for about 30 minutes until golden brown

Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.
Serve with additional pizza sauce for dipping if desired

How Were the Pizza Pockets?

This was a fun dinner. I wasn’t in the mood to fuss with a pizza. The pizza oven wasn’t up and running yet so I would have had to make it in the oven and the movers broke my pizza stone so there was that as well. These homemade pizza pockets gave us the taste of pizza without having to deal with the pizza of pizza if you know what I mean.

These would be a great way to use up leftovers – just fill them with pretty much any kind of vegetable/meat/cheese combo and you are good to go. Make them smaller and add a bowl of soup and you have a completely different dinner. So many possibilities from one ball of pizza dough! My other favorite use of pizza dough when not using it for pizza is to make edible bread bowls for salad or soup.

So.Much.Fun.