Pizza Chiena

“Pizza chiena” is Neapolitan dialect for what would be called “pizza ripiena” or filled pizza in Italian. Originally this pastry was made like a giant turnover with a raw pizza crust—the type used for a standard large individual pizza in Naples—and filled with ricotta and cured meats before being folded over and baked. It is the ancestor of what pizzerias now call a calzone. By and by, the pizza crust was transformed into a pastry dough, though there are some versions of pizza chiena that u