Grain free Pizza Pockets
Golden, crisp half-moon pockets made with a buttery cassava and arrowroot dough, filled with marinara, melty mozzarella, fresh basil, and oregano. A portable, kid-friendly lunch that freezes beautifully.
Yield: 8 pizza pockets · Active: 30 min · Total: 1 hr 15 min, including chilling · Year-round (with fresh basil and tomatoes in summer) · Best eaten: midday
Ingredients
Dough
1 cup cassava flour
½ cup arrowroot (or tapioca flour)
¼ cup blanched almond flour
½ tsp Baja Gold sea salt
6 tbsp cold grass-fed butter, cubed
1 pasture-raised egg
2 tbsp ice water, or as needed
Filling
½ cup marinara sauce, homemade or jarred, with no added sugar
1 cup low-moisture whole-milk mozzarella, shredded from a block (or half fresh buffalo mozzarella, well drained)
¼ cup fresh basil, chopped
A pinch of dried oregano
Optional: a pinch of red pepper flakes
Egg wash: 1 pasture-raised egg, beaten with 1 tbsp water
Optional toppings: flaky sea salt, and sesame or poppy seeds
Method
Make the dough. Pulse the cassava flour, arrowroot, almond flour, and salt in a food processor. Add the cold butter, and pulse until it's in pea-sized pieces. Add the egg, and pulse until the mixture starts to clump, then add ice water 1 tbsp at a time, until a soft dough forms.
Chill. Knead it briefly into a disc, wrap it, and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.
Prep. Heat the oven to 375°F, and line a baking sheet with parchment.
Roll. Divide the dough into 8 balls. Flatten each one on a sheet of parchment with your palm, or roll it into a round about ¼ inch thick and 5–6 inches across.
Fill. Spoon 1 tbsp marinara onto one half of each round, and top with 2 tbsp mozzarella and a pinch of basil, oregano, and red pepper flakes (if using).
Seal. Fold the dough over into a half-moon, press the edges firmly together, and crimp them with a fork.
Bake. Move the pockets to the baking sheet, brush them with egg wash, and sprinkle with flaky salt and seeds, if you like. Bake 18–22 minutes, until deep golden, with the filling bubbling slightly.
Cool 5 minutes before serving, since the filling is very hot.
Storage
Refrigerated up to 4 days; reheat at 350°F for 10 minutes to recrisp. Or freeze them unbaked up to 2 months, and bake from frozen at 375°F for 25–30 minutes.
Nourishment Notes
Grain-free pastry doughs work differently from wheat doughs. Here, cassava flour gives the dough body and a slight chewiness, much like wheat, while arrowroot binds the dough and keeps it flexible, and almond flour adds richness. Cutting cold butter into the flour, as you would for a classic pie crust, keeps the crust tender and lightly flaky.
Pizza pockets have their roots in southern Italy: the Neapolitan calzone dates to around the 18th century, panzerotti are fried pockets from Puglia, and stromboli is an Italian-American invention from 1950s Philadelphia. They all share the same idea, a savory filling folded inside dough, and this grain-free version fills the same niche: a portable, kid-friendly hand pie.
The right mozzarella matters. Fresh buffalo mozzarella has the most flavor, but it releases water as it bakes, which can make the filling soggy. Low-moisture mozzarella melts cleanly and holds its shape, so combining the two, with the buffalo mozzarella drained very well, gives you both clean melt and rich flavor.
Cassava — a gluten-free root vegetable flour, with some resistant starch.
Almond flour — vitamin E and magnesium.
Mozzarella — protein, calcium, and vitamins A and K2.
Pasture-raised eggs — choline and vitamins A, D, E, and K2.
Grass-fed butter — vitamins A and K2, CLA, and butyrate.
Marinara — lycopene, made more absorbable by cooking with fat.
Basil and oregano — eugenol, carvacrol, and aromatic compounds.
For your cycle: These are a satisfying, protein-rich lunch in any phase. Pair them with a big green salad for extra fiber and minerals.
Sourcing
Cassava flour — organic, finely ground, with nothing added, like Otto's Naturals
Arrowroot and almond flour — organic (keep the almond flour in the fridge)
Grass-fed butter — organic, cultured butter from 100% grass-fed cows
Eggs — organic and pasture-raised
Mozzarella — low-moisture, whole-milk mozzarella in a block, from grass-fed milk if you can find it, with no added starches; fresh buffalo mozzarella (mozzarella di bufala)
Marinara — organic, in glass, with no added sugar or seed oils (Bionaturae or Jovial), or homemade
Basil — organic, from a farmers' market or your windowsill
Dried oregano and red pepper flakes — organic and non-irradiated
Sesame and poppy seeds (optional) — organic
Salt — Baja Gold sea salt; Maldon for finishing
— Anna aka Food Marshall