Superbowl Snack Throwdown: Mini Aloha Calzones

Happy Friday!  You can celebrate the weekend's arrival by clicking here to vote for your favorite pineapple recipe in HighLowAha's weekly Superbowl Snack Throwdown!  Hopefully, your favorite involves cute little umbrellas... ;)

I never had pineapple pizza until our honeymoon.  We found a little pizza place in Lahaina on Maui, and they had this amazing pineapple and ham deep dish pizza.  I'm not usually a fan of ham OR pineapple (well, except for when I was pregnant with Ryan and ate pineapple like it was my job) but this pizza was absolutely amazing.  More than 6 years later, I still remember it.

I've had similar (but not as yummy!) pies since, though most involve a red pizza sauce.  While those variations are good, I much prefer the delicious flavor combination of the ham and pineapple to stand out on its own and not be masked by tomatoes.

When pineapple was selected as the secret ingredient, I knew I wanted to replicate the yumminess of that pizza.  While you might choose to serve these with a tomato sauce for dunking, I prefered to leave them plain.

One of the things I love about this recipe is how versatile it is depending on your cooking ability - or how much time you have.  You can make your own pizza dough or use store-bought.  Fresh pineapple or canned.  Diced deli meat or last night's leftover ham.  This is truly a recipe that will appeal to all ability levels in the kitchen!

They are very fast to whip up and are sure to disappear quickly.  Enjoy!

Ingredients

• olive oil
• 1 batch pizza crust
• 1 cup ricotta
• 1 cup mozzarella
• 1 cup diced ham
• 1 cup diced pineapple (if using canned, drain first!)

Preheat oven to 400.  Lightly coat a 9x9 baking dish with oil.

Roll out pizza dough and divide into 16 pieces.  Combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl.

Take a piece of dough and flatten.  Place a spoonful of the pineapple mixture into the dough and wrap the corners around to seal.  Place seam side down in the baking dish.  Repeat with the rest of the dough.

Bake uncovered for 16-20 minutes.