Pumpkin and Chilpotle Turkey Calzone

It has been five days since I last blogged but it feels like it has been forever.  I was sick most of last week with a nasty cold and just when I thought I was getting better, I got hit with a nasty flu bug.  I've spent most of the past five days sleeping and on a liquid diet of Gatorade and chicken broth.  But I'm slowly on the mend and I'm ready to get back into blogging.

Last week, I felt like I was in a cooking rut.  I rummaged through my freezer and I found a tin of Pumpkin Chilpotle Pesto that I purchased from Pestos with Panache at the Boston Food Truck Festival this past summer.  I also found a package of lean ground turkey in the freezer.  Using these two ingredients as a base, I decided to make a pumpkin and chilpotle turkey calzone.  I de-thawed the ground turkey and the tin of pesto in the fridge.  I then gathered up my ingredients - a jalapeno pepper, a log of goat cheese, one medium-sized onion and pizza dough.

I had a leftover jalapeno pepper from my beef and bean chili.  I de-seeded the pepper and chopped it up.

I warmed up a skillet on the stove at medium-high heat with a few tablespoons of vegetable oil.  The ground turkey was really lean so I kept a close eye on it to prevent it from over-cooking and becoming too dry. 

As the turkey began to brown, I added the chopped jalapeno to the pan.

While the turkey and jalapeno pepper was cooking, I quickly sliced up the onion thinly.

I added half the tin of the pumpkin and chilpotle pesto to the turkey and pepper mixture and gave it a stir.

I put the turkey mixture aside to cool.

I added some more vegetable oil to the pan and caramelized the onions.

When they were done, I also put the onions aside in a bowl to cool.

I then rolled out the pizza dough.  In hindsight I should have made two calzones but I was lazy and made one jumbo calzone.  I layered it with the caramelized onions and chunks of goat cheese, about 3/4 of the turkey mixture, and more onions and goat cheese.

I closed up the calzone, vented it and gave it a quick egg wash.

I baked the calzone on a parchment-lined baking sheet in the oven at 400 degrees for twenty minutes.  When the calzone was done it looked gorgeous  - crusty and golden brown.

The dough (although store-bought) was nice and chewy.  The turkey had a subtle pumpkin flavor and a nice mild level of heat.  The goat cheese was tangy and the caramelized onions added sweetness. 

I had a slice of the calzone with some simple Olivia's Organics 50/50 Blend tossed with a homemade olive oil and white champagne balsamic vinaigrette.

This was the last meal I had before the flu hit and Bret got to enjoy the rest of the leftovers while I lay sick in bed.  Since I've been out of touch, tell me - what's the best thing you cooked or ate this week?  Also, have you voted for Boston's Best Local Blogger yet?  I'm still in the running and would really appreciate your vote here!