Nonna’s {fakeout} Panzerotti
So, we are home! It was a whirlwind trip full of once in a lifetime sights and quiet time with Nonno, Nonna, aunts, uncles and cousins. It’s these once a year trips I cherish most. It is our family vacation. It is our time with family as well as time to spend together just the five of us as a family. Hopefully my kids will remember these trips when they get older.
As I have been writing this blog over the past year (yes it has been a year), I look at everything from a food perspective. I want to know HOW it’s done! I’m always learning.
My Nonna’s Panzerotti are no exception. She makes them every year for us. Hopefully you checked out my video on Instagram of exactly how she does it! It’s her homemade pizza dough, tomato & mozzarella filling and then she fries the dough. You can’t argue with fried dough! I of course had to simplify things.
Do you always have pizza dough lying around? I don’t. But I do always have a package of puff pastry dough in the freezer (you should too). And I always have canned tomatoes and mozzarella! I bake this instead of fry it, but it still gets crispy and delicious!
The kids asked why I never made this before and informed me I definitely need to make it again!
Nonna's {fakeout} Panzerotti
Ingredients
Panzerotti
- 1 package puff pastry defrosted
- 2 tablespoons olive oil plus extra for brushing inside of dough
- 1 28 ounce can Italian whole peeled tomatoes
- 6-8 ounces of a mozarella cheese log usually pre-sliced
- salt & pepper
- handful basil chopped or torn by hand
Dipping Sauce
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 small onion finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic finely chopped
- remaing tomato sauce in can
- tomato water
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Over a large bowl squeeze each canned tomato with you hands until crushed and broken down. Next shred by hand about 6-8 ounces sliced mozarella and add to the tomatoes. Add salt, pepper and torn basil. Mix. Set aside.
- You should have some extra tomato sauce in the can. Set this aside for later.
- Prepare a large baking tray with non stick foil or a non stick silicone mat.
- On a floured surface, roll out each sheet of puff pastry dough and cut out about 6 large squares each. Brush each square with some olive oil and sprinkle with some salt. You should have 12 squares.
- Add about 1 tablespoon of tomato and mozzarella mixture in the center of each square.
- Fold the dough over on itself to form a package, Make sure the edges are sealed. I make it look like a wrapped candy and then fold the edges over. They will all look different depending on the size of the square you cut- that's part of the fun!
- Place each bundle on the baking sheet. Heavily coat each package with ample olive oil (to mimic frying). Make sure you get some underneath.
- Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until the dough is cooked through and golden brown on the top and bottom.
- While the Panzerotti are cooking, make the dipping sauce.
- Chop the garlic and onion and add it to a saucepan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Saute until fragrant over medium heat.
- Remember our reserved canned tomatoes? Add those to the garlic and onion. Next add 1/4 cup of water to the tomato can and swirl it around to catch and leftover tomato goodness in the can. Add it to the sauce. Add salt and pepper. Let simmer on medium heat ( make sure to stir occasionally) while the Panzerotti cook.
- When the Panzerotti are done. let them cool for about 5 minutes before serving
- Serve the Panzerotti with the dipping sauce!
