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In the last 5 years of living a Paleo lifestyle, there is only one food craving that still pesters me from time to time. Pizza. I’m positive I am not alone. It’s why one of the first recipes I created was my popular AIP Stromboli which this recipe is based on. If you’re unfamiliar with my dairy-free, grain-free, nightshade-free stromboli, you may be wondering what is even left for a pizza-like recipe!? Well almost 3 years ago in my Chicago apartment, I combined mashed white sweet potato and arrowroot starch and baked it… and it turns into this amazingly gooey, cheese-like dough. Filled with salty and savory Italian flavors like rosemary and prosciutto, it was the answer to my pesky pizza cravings. Funny enough, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve made my own Stromboli, but I know it’s a community favorite. Now I present to you the AIP Italian Calzone. Very similar to the stromboli recipe with some tweaks to the filling ingredients, amount of arrowroot starch, and dough-forming process. No need to reinvent the wheel, right?
Don’t let the number of steps fool you though — this is a foolproof, easy recipe. After the first time you make it, you’ll become a sweet potato dough professional. And I left the ingredients open-ended… fill your calzone with any type of uncured AIP compliant meat (even use prosciutto or bacon, if that’s all you can find), olives (don’t leave them out — so delicious!), onion, seasoning mix, or vegetables (I’m thinking small diced zucchini and mushrooms would be awesome!)
This recipe serves one so if you want to make a fun date night with your partner or a friend out of it, set up little bowls of filling and let each person DIY their AIP calzone! Serve it up with a big green salad too!
- 1 cup cooked, mashed, and cooled white sweet potato
- ⅓ cup arrowroot starch
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ cup diced fully cooked AIP-compliant sausage, ham, or pancetta
- ¼ cup sliced green or black olives
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- ½ teaspoon dried Italian herb seasoning
- Small handful baby spinach
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and arrange an oven rack in the middle of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Have an extra sheet of parchment paper handy.
- In a food processor, combine the sweet potato, arrowroot starch and sea salt until fully combined.
- Spoon the dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Place the extra sheet of parchment on top of the dough and use it to assist you in shaping the dough into an 8-inch diameter circle.
- On one half of the circle, distribute the sausage, olives, garlic, seasoning, and spinach evenly. Use the bottom piece of parchment paper to assist you in folding the other half of the dough on top of the filling to form the calzone. It will look like a half-circle.
- Brush the olive oil all over the calzone. Use a fork and the help of your fingers to gently seal the dough.
- Bake the calzone for 28 to 30 minutes until the edges are lightly golden brown. Turn the broiler on high and broil for 2 to 4 minutes until the top of the calzone is a golden brown and crispy in spots.
- Let cool for 5 minutes before slicing in half.
82 comments
Where can I find white sweet potato? I checked wf, Trader Joe’s, local organic market, produce stand. No one carries it.
Hi Yana, those places usually have them, but if you can’t source them I am sure this recipe will turn out with the orange variety, just a different color!
Whole Foods
Whole Foods carries white sweet potato but they call them Japanese Sweet Potatoes. They are my favorites, very sweet. They look dark red on the outside and creamy white inside.
I found white sweet potatoes at trader Joes…they are purple on the outside! Murasaki Sweet Potatoes 🙂
The white sweet potatoes actually look like regular sweet potatoes/yams…they’re just white (or very pale yellow) on the inside. Hope this helps! 🙂
Whole Foods sometimes supermarket.
Amazing recipe, so tasty! Thank you!
This is the greatest!
I eat white sweet potatoes all the time, and I cannot wait to try this! The Italian in me misses pizza and such like crazy! Thank you for the recipe:)
Try asking for Japanese yams
What genius is this? I will try with wild garlic and report back.
Just found out about the cure for Hashimoto’s! Also finding many more people affected by it. Delighted with the recipes above and looking forward to receiving more. Thank you!
Being in the Caribbean I can easily find white sweet potato’s. This makes me very happy, as so many things are so hard to find here and I am getting bored just starting out on this journey. I wonder if you could make pasta with this?
What a great idea!!! I’m thinking dumplings, too.
I’ve been using the dough to experiment with gnocchi (and it turns out pretty good!)
This recipe looks fabulous!! I love white sweet potatoes! Do you think I could substitute unflavored gelatin for arrowroot? I can’t seem to process large amounts of arrowroot 🙁
No it would be really gooey and tacky. Can you do tapioca? You can sub it 1:1. Never have tried it with cassava but that may be another option.
Would coconut flower (tiny amount) and egg make a good substitute binder? I can’t do starches very well but love to have a “bread” made from Sweet potatoes, which works so much better for me than starches and flours.
Thanks,
Tina
How do you keep it from being too sticky and not being able to fold it over? I even put some arrowroot on the parchment paper and it was just a mess.
Did you allow the sweet potato to cool as stated in the ingredients? It sounds like the arrowroot was mixed with warm potato which would make it extra sticky.
I had the same problem. My sweet potato cooled for 24 hours in the fridge before I made this, so I know that wasn’t the issue. The dough was a gooey, tacky mess – a lot like drop biscuit dough. Maybe I mixed it too long in the food processor?
It does still stay a bit sticky for sure – did you follow the instructions to use the second piece of parchment paper on top to roll it out? I just plop the gooey mess onto the parchment paper covered cookie sheet in one pile, then I take the second piece of parchment paper and gently start to press down on it to create a circle of dough underneath. Sometimes I take a rolling pin and very slowly, super gently help the process along. Then I carefully pull off the top piece of paper….put filling on one half of the ‘dough’….and then I fold the top half over the filling by actually folding the whole thing over – parchment paper and everything. When it’s covering the filling, I gently start to peel the top piece of parchment paper back, leaving behind the folded over piece of potato dough – if that at all makes sense.
Once you’ve done it several times, it gets easier and easier. And is definitely worth it – this is hands-down my favourite savory AIP recipe!
I’ve found greasing the parchment pieces in some sort of fat help it spread and peel nicely. Also makes for a crispy outside 🙂
I attempted to make this tonight and I feel like I did something wrong. “Dough” stuck to parchment paper. Was I supposed to cool in fridge? I cooked the sweet potatoes for almost an hour at 350 degrees. Too long?
Did you allow the sweet potato to cool as stated in the ingredients?
This is a wonderful recipe and really quick to make! I cooked the sweet potato whole in the microwave, then pushed it through a potato ricer into a bowl and mixed in the arrowroot powder with a spatula and the dough turned out really well, not sticky at all.
You are a wizard genius. I just made this for the second time since seeing the recipe last week, and it is the best. I added two tablespoons of nutritional yeast to the dough, but otherwise made no changes. SO good. Can’t wait to mix this with nomato sauce.
ALSO, I am totally going to try making some sort of fruit pie (with lots of gelatin protein in the fruit compote) with this dough…
Thank you!!
What a bunch of great ideas! Thank you for sharing!
Hi!
I’m a little confused. I read that arrowroot is a no go on an AIP diet and here you use almost a cup. Could you please explain?
Annette
Hi Annette, arrowroot is AIP compliant.
I made this last night and we loved the recipe! My hubby and 19 year old son would have liked seconds if there was more. It is weird “dough” and quite gooey and sticky but once assembled baked nicely. Thanks for the great recipe!!!
Are potatoes ok for AIP? I know they aren’t for the SCD and sibo diet.
Hi Nancy, sweet potatoes like in this recipe are fine, but regular potatoes are not (they are in the nightshade family). Hope it helps!
Gah! I couldnt find any arrowroot without additives so am about to try with tapioca. I did see Aleana mentions above that it’s a 1:1 replacement. Gosh I hope so! These look amazing! The hardest part is going to be waiting for those white sweet potatoes to cook!
[…] GET THE RECIPE ON AUTOIMMUNE WELLNESS! […]
I wonder how this would be with some zucchini cheese inside? Has anyone tried it that way?
Oh my gosh! I made this tonit and it was so so so so good! No need zucchini cheese in it…it’s perfect and yummy just the way it is. The only thing I would do differently is to broil it on both sides to crisp up both the top and bottom. This is definitely a winner!
Yes broiling on both sides is worth the extra few minutes! Good call!
Hi! I can’t do any arrowroot or tapioca right now- this is making a lot of the AIP recipes I’m finding hard to make! But they all look so good! Is there any substitute you all can think of that would be a good binder?? I can’t come up with anything that would be light enough and actually hold it together. Does anyone know anything about Agar Agar?
This looks really yummy. Has anyone tried to freeze this? I’m thinking a few of these in the freezer would be awesome for those days where I have no energy to cook.
Yes, these freeze beautifully. You can also add fruit in them for a fruit pie like dessert. I love having these on hand
What are your reheat instructions for when they’re frozen? Thanks!
That sounds amazing!
What fruit fillings have you tried that you enjoy? Did you use fresh or frozen? Did you add anything else? How long and high did you bake your sweet potatoes? I only found Caribbean sweet potatoes. I hope it works similarly. Also have you tried any other flours besides arrow root and tapioca? Thank you!
Hi, do I can use Tapioca insted of arrowroot starch?
How do you cook the sweet potato? Boil? Roast? I don’t have a microwave.
Bake or boil the sweet potatoes?
Instead of broiling at the end do you think you can pan fry it alittle to crisp it up?
Yes you could – just be sure to add adequate oil and use a large spatula!
I second Allison C’s comment 🙂 Boil or bake? As one is much more moist than the other I feel like this would have a significant impact on the dough. Thanks in advance – can’t wait to try this!
I prefer baking, steaming or microwaving for recipes containing my sweet potato dough!
Hi Alaena,
I think that is the reason why people, like me, wound up with extremely sticky dough, even though the potatoes were cool; I boiled my potatoes. I believe the water was the culprit. After baking for longer than your recipe said, the bottom wouldn’t set and stuck to the parchment paper. I ended up salvaging what I could and putting it in a frying pan to set what little dough was left.
Maybe put in the directions to bake or microwave the potatoes so no water is added. I’ll be doing that next time I try this!
My husband loved it, sticky dough and all!
I used Grazed and Enthused’s sausage flatbread (pizza) recipe for the filling, but subbed onions for squash. I should have also made the sauce from that recipe bc the filling was missing something–next time! I also followed her instructions for her stromboli recipe for the calzone, in that I slowly added arrowroot/tapioca until the dough was the consistency it needed to be. White sweet potatoes can have different amounts of moisture so the amount of flour needed will vary. I had doubled the recipe and my potatoes seemed very moist, so I had to add a lot of flour until the dough became the consistency where it could be rolled out and folded over. And, just as a note: For this recipe and her stromboli recipe, I always add the sweet potatoes right out of the microwave (hot) and never have a problem with the dough.
[…] during my search, I stumbled across this AIP Italian Calzone. It essentially used three ingredients to make the dough. Um YES PLEASE! That recipe led me […]
THANK YOU THANK YOU for this incredible recipe! It exceeded my expectations and has surely satisfied the incessant pizza/Italian food craving I’ve had after 1.5 years following AIP. I appreciate the simplicity of the dough (and especially that it is coconut free!). Can’t wait to try more filling ingredients!
This is very exciting! I love all of your posts and recipes. Been so incredible for me and so encouraging. I haven’t been able to reintroduce arrow root or tapioca starch. Has anyone tried with cassava or could suggest other AIP options to try? How do you bake your sweet potato? The only one I could find that seemed close Caribbean sweet potato. Do you think that would still work? Thank you so much in advance!
Ran out of tapioca and subbed cassava flour… it’s in the oven now. the dough was a little extra delicate but still held together and I think it will hold up fine! I plan to eat it with a fork and knife anyway. I have made the Stromboli recipe multiple times and love it! Decided to try this today.
[…] on top, just as much as you would enjoy the fast-food pizza (or a delicious autoimmune friendly calzone) if you realize how important it is to look for nutrition instead of just flavor (or convenience). […]
THANK YOU! This is day 1 of my AIP diet and this was an amazing introduction to it! I know I will be using this one over and over!
Is it possible to make a big batch of these and refrigerate so they can be eaten through the week?
[…] recently re-vamped this Stromboli recipe into an AIP Italian Calzone! Even more delicious because it includes sausage and olives so salty, salty, salty yes yes yes. […]
[…] for dinner last night I made an AIP dinner. Calzones. And they were purple, but delicious, haha. Actually, mine was delicious; Ben’s looked […]
[…] Italian calzone from Autoimmune Wellness […]
I followed the recommendation on another comment that said to grease both parchment papers. After greasing with coconut oil my dough came off the parchment paper real well when folding it over. I also used regular sweet potatoes with great tasting success.
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So I’ve made this recipe about 4 times and am getting it figured out with the dough consistency and folding it up…but every time I have trouble with the underneath side still being gooey when the bake time is over! The top is perfect. Any suggestions? I’ve baked it on parchment paper and I’ve baked it on a baking stone. I don’t have white sweet potatoes but have been using regular ones with a yummy result.
I have made your stromboli recipe and it was genius! But I don’t love the sweetness from the sweet potatoes. Any idea if another starchy vegetable like maybe green plantains would work?
I too am wondering if plantains would work instead of white sweet potatoes.
My wife and I love pizza, but she hates the sweetness of sweet potatoes. I normally am a fan of sweet potatoes but I’m not sure I’d appreciate their sweetness in a calzone.
My potato dough ended up being a sticky mess even after adding a lot more arrowroot. I realized after reading the comments that I was supposed to let the potatoes cool before adding the arrowroot starch 🙁 I ended up pouring it over the filling and baking it. It was still pretty sticky after baking but the sweetness of the sweet potatoes tasted very nice with the filling. I have some left over sweet potatoes with no arrowroot starch and will probably just make more of a casserole with the leftovers and put the sweet potatoes on top.
This recipe works better if you chill your sweet potatoe mixture in the freezer about five minutes before shaping it on the parchment paper. Also I saved the top piece of parchment paper to flip the calzone half way though the baking time. I’m glad I read through the comments beforehand.
Thanks
I used orange sweet potatoes with greattasting success. Leftover dinner filled it nicely, seasoned sautéed turkey with broccoli slaw. So many possibilities. Mine was gooey on the bottom though and stuck to the parchment paper… Next time I think I’ll try putting it on a rack to bake, and maybe a little more arrowroot to make the dough less sticky? My sweet potatoes were completely cold. Any tips for freezing and reheating????
I love this recipe. I bake it right on my silicone baking sheet. I’ve made it twice in two days. It even makes its own melted cheese inside!! I look forward to make various fillings for it. I’m thinking pastrami and sauerkraut (if I can drain the kraut enough) – I miss reuben sandwiches!
I forgot to rate it! – 6 stars of course!
Great recipe! Didn’t have sweet white potatoes so I used yams and still turned out very well. Thank you for sharing!
I love this recipe !! It’s just always a mess i got some good advice but am wondering best way to peel the sweet potatoes please?
OMG This was absolutely delicious! I filled mine with olives, mushrooms, spinach, garlic and a little crumbled bacon, and made “Nomato” sauce (from Grass Fed Salsa’s blog) to dip in – so indulgent! My non AIP 8 year-old couldn’t resist how tasty it looked and dug in too. I could see this “crust” being filled different ways – it’s like an empanada… or a deli knish. We’re going to try it stuffed with Thanksgiving leftovers in a couple of weeks!
The flavours are ok however depsite a long cooking time and oiled baking parchment, this completely fused with the parchment and was totally inedible- I had to scrape bits off.
Any idea why this might be?
This was the perfect way to use up half of a large sweet potato that I had sitting in the fridge! Followed the recipe exactly as is and filled it with ground beef and spinach. My dough was not sticky or gooey at all, and my potato was microwaved and fully chilled since it was a leftover. Can’t wait to make this again with some compliant sausage or pancetta – YUM! Thank you so much for this 🙂
Made this recipe today and it blew my mind! Thank you so much for making our life a little bit more tasty!
I wonder if I can make pot pie with the same dough?
Hi Amanda! I have a pot pie recipe here: https://autoimmunewellness.com/aip-tarragon-chicken-pot-pie/
I made this last night, tripled the recipe to feed us all. My dough was very wet as well, but I pressed on and oiled a flat spatula to peel it off the top piece of parchment, then just used a spreader to spread the dough into a circle for the other two and used my oiled spatula again after folding. I cooked my huge white sweet potato in my Instant Pot, btw. Maybe doing the microwave thing might be a better choice to dry things out a bit, the IP is essentially steaming.
These were divine and absolutely brilliant Alana! I like the idea of flipping them and broiling the bottom. I will make this again.
I tried this recipe last night. I baked the sweet potatoes in the morning and let them cool all day in the refrigerator. The dough was a sticky mess and stuck to the parchment after I rolled it out. I ended up baking the dough without a filling and put my toppings on it after it baked and ate it like pizza.