Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Shrimp Pesto Pizza

Well, now we are down to some serious business. Shrimp pesto pizza. It has a cream cheese base, then pesto, then stuff piled on top. Need I say more?

Friday night is pizza night. Thanks to an outstanding recipe my mother developed, I usually have the dough on hand.(5 day bread dough ). I've talked about it before, but I really do enjoy knowing that I have dough for rolls, bread sticks, pretzels, cinnamon rolls, pizza...you get the idea. It's in the fridge. I know I am covered.

5 day bread dough ...become familiar with it. Make it Monday, still have dough on Friday. It's cool. I used the last 1/5th and rolled it out on a lightly floured counter top until it was round and about a half inch thick. Lightly coat the pizza stone with cornmeal. Then transfer the dough to the stone. That stoneware pizza pan started out light tan in color...so you know it's well seasoned and we use it all the time.



Oh yea, this is out of sequence, and totally random (you will start to notice a trend in my randomness). I'm not ditzy. Wait. Maybe I am a little. That is what makes me so insanely charming, right? Ask my husband Ace . When I was moving out to get married...wait. We are talking about pizza.
Here we go:

Cheese. Focus. I found a cheese that worked perfect for this pizza. Not only was it on sale, I also liked it. So that's a winning combination right?

It melted really cool and tasted so perfect. I don't work for Kraft either. Just liked the cheese.
So, in addition to the dough and cheese, you will need:

4 oz. softened cream cheese
1/2 cup prepared pesto sauce (of your choice...be creative!)
8 oz shrimp
1 lemon
2 large shallots, or 4 small, minced (you can use red onion instead)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup melted butter
black pepper
kosher salt

I softened 4 oz. of cream cheese.  Then spread it really artistically across the dough. Every time I use cream cheese I think of that movie line "the whole family looks like they're carved out of cream cheese!" (Quick, name that movie).


Next, plop...yes. Plop the pesto. Take a moment to just feel the calming influence of the pesto. Ohm...slip off your shoes if you have to. Mossy. Really it helps. I put on my hip skirt and belly dancing garb. Not really.

Spread it out over the cream cheese. Frame this picture. It matches your living room rug. In the 1970's we had rug like this. All textured and cool pea green. We called it Dinosaur turd green. Do not associate that with this pizza though. Sorry again for being so random.

Jurassic park...Sorry. (giggle).


Okay then roll over the sides and pinch them down really good so they puff up like bread sticks...or is that one giant round bread stick? I'm confusing myself. I really need to stop that.

Grab your shrimp and put it in a bowl. Mine was already cooked. Ace has a hard enough time with shrimp without me putting grey matter on the crust (I did not mean brain...oh dear that would be gross). No raw shrimp. That would have been a deal breaker, as if my reference to dinosaurs (and brains) hasn't already ruined forever your chances of happiness.



Shallots. Look like little purple garlic. In the produce section. I know some of you have never cooked with them in your life. I buy them in bulk. Peel and mince.


Shred the cheese. Pile it up really fluffy.


Add the lemon juice, zest, shallot, garlic, salt and pepper to the shrimp. I go heavy on the pepper, easy on the salt. Especially since the cheese is already salty.

Now here's where I get wild and weird. (I am denying fully any earlier wild and weird things I have done.) Now. I mix the cheese with the shrimp mixture. I think it tastes better. I may be weird. Just maybe.



Then I spread it out on the pizza. Topped it with the chopped bell peppers. I don't know why I didn't add those to the mixture. Seems I like adding steps. Random.

Preheated oven to 425 degrees. Baked 35-40 minutes. While it was baking I got my bread stick stuff together.

To the melted butter I added the minced garlic and a healthy dose of fresh cracked black pepper.



When the pizza was done I glazed the crust with the butter garlic combination and garnished the top of the pizza with the chopped parsley.
If you want to make this a freezer meal, see the post .Freezer Meal Ideas Pizza .

There you go.

2 comments:

Goob said...

A: my mouth is watering thinking of shrimp and pesto.
B: How did I miss 5 day bread dough?
C: Do I tell my husband we could have bread dough in the fridge nearly every day?--because he's already been begging me to make extra batches for freezing and I just haven't been willing to do the work...I know...selfish.

Chef Tess said...

You will love the 5 day dough then! It's a life saver, effort saver, instant domestic godess maker. Pretty much awesome! Love ya!!