There is nothing new or surprising about my deep love for foods in pockets. Anytime you can get a delicious filling inside of a pie crust, puff pastry, or wrapper, I’m in. I’ve previously shared this love with you through these Sweet Potato, Kale, and Bacon Pastries, as well as super delicious Pork Spring Rolls. Today I am psyched to talk about pizza pockets.

When I was a kid, I remember being in love with Hot Pockets. I went through a phase in high school where I would munch down on a ham and cheese on a fairly regular basis. As I got older, I realized how creepy those things are, but my love for the hot pocket idea did not dissipate.

Recently, I had a mild fiasco where I awoke and went into the kitchen one morning and saw with horror that the freezer door was open. Upon further investigation and reflection, I realized that something had gotten stuck in the door the previous night when we had enjoyed a late night ice cream snack and the door had been open all night. Everything was defrosted. Cold, but defrosted. It was very sad to throw away so much ice cream. My plan for the day was tossed out the window. I ended up spending the whole afternoon cooking pounds and pounds of chicken and sausage and various other goods. At the time, I had a pound of Italian sausage on my hands and a lot of puff pastry that needed to be cooked. I looked in my cabinet and was out of canned tomatoes, but I found one little can of tomato paste. Then the idea came to me, Pizza Pockets! In retrospect, I’m kind of glad we left the freezer door open that night, because these have become a staple.

Since this auspicious day, I have made these pockets multiple times. In fact, my boyfriend likes them better than most of the local pizza delivery places, and I do too. So lately, whenever it is a pizza kind of night, I just grab a few of these out of the freezer and pop them in the oven. In the same amount of time that it would take for the pizza to arrive, we’ve made some crisp, delicious, homemade pizza pockets. Serve along with a big salad, and you’ve got dinner. Make a big batch and cook half for now and freeze half for later. Trust me. You’ll be glad when one of those “I don’t want to cook, let’s order a pizza” nights comes along.

Italian Sausage Pizza Pockets

• 1 lb mild Italian pork sausage
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/4 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp salt
• pepper
• 1 small can tomato paste + 1 can of water
• 1 egg+ 2 tsp water
• flour: for rolling board
• 1 package puff pastry, thawed (two sheets)
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella

Recipe makes 12.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a skillet, cook sausage until browned, breaking it up into small pieces. When browned, drain any excess fat. Add pepper flakes, basil, oregano, salt, a few grinds of pepper, and the tomato paste and can of water. Mix until well combined. Turn heat down low and simmer until mixture combines and thickens.

Remove sausage from heat and let cool while you set up your station. You will need a space to roll out the pastry, the pastry, flour, and egg mixture. For egg mixture, beat together egg and water until well mixed. Get a brush for mixture. If you don’t have one, you can just brush on the egg mixture with your fingers. It is just messier.

Flour your board and put first piece of puff pastry on it.

Sprinkle some flour on top and roll it out.

With a sharp knife, cut the pastry into 6 or 8 squares. These were good sized pockets at 6 squares, but 8 is a perfectly acceptable size as well.

Brush the egg mixture around the edges of each square. This will make the pockets hold together better.

Fill each square with about two tablespoons of sausage filling. Then sprinkle with mozzarella. As much as you can fit in the pocket.

Yummy.

Grab the corners that are further away from you, and fold over. Pinch together the corners. The pastry is fairly stretchy, so if you put a ton of filling in there, just gently pull on the pastry to make the corners meet.

Pinch along the top edge.

And then down the sides. And voila! You have a pocket.  Repeat with second puff pastry sheet, making 12-16 pockets.

Put pockets on a cookie sheet. Brush them with egg mixture and cut a small slit in the top. This makes it less likely that the filling will bubble out the sides of your pockets when cooking.

At this step, there are two options.

1. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Eat and enjoy!

2. Put the cookie sheet in your freezer. Once pockets are frozen, take them off the cookie sheet and put them in a freezer bag for future consumption. If you just put them in the freezer bag, they will stick together, so it is important to let them freeze individually first. When you are ready to eat them, bake at 400 for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown. 

Enjoy your pizza night at home!