Pizza with Radicchio, Shrimp, & Fontina

I've been trying to cook more from actual cookbooks in my cupboard. You know, just in case they are terrible books and I can clear some space out. Anyway, we found this The Little Guides: Pizza cookbook and it has a lot of different things in it. There are several sauce and homemade dough recipes to choose from, though the final recipe recommends which one you should use. We still purchase ready-made dough from the store to speed things up, but the few recipes we've tried have turned out well.

• 6 cloves garlic
• olive oil to cover and for drizzling
• 6 large shrimp, peeled, deveined and halved lengthwise
• salt and coarsely ground black pepper
• pizza dough
• 1/4 head radicchio (red chicory), core removed and coarsely chopped
• 1 1/2 Tbsp finely shredded fresh basil
• 4-5 oz Fontina cheese, sliced

Peel the garlic but leave the cloves whole. In a small, heavy saucepan over medium-low heat, combine garlic cloves with just enough olive oil to cover. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook the garlic until it is covered in golden dots, about 15 minutes. Watch carefully, as garlic burns easily. Remove from heat, let cool, and then drain off the oil. Set the garlic aside.

Place a pizza brick or cookie sheet on the lowest rack of an oven. Preheat to 500 degrees. In a small bowl, mix together the shrimp, 1 Tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. 

Place the ball of dough on a lightly floured, rimless cookie sheet. Sprinkle a little more flour on top and, using your fingertips, press evenly into a round, flat disk about 1 1/2 inches thick and 5 inches in diameter. Lift the dough and gently stretch it with your fingers, and then over the backs of your fists, using the weight of the dough to allow it to grow in size. While you are stretching the dough, gently rotate the disk. continue stretching and rotating the dough until it is about 1/4 inch thick and 9 inches in diameter and has a rim about 1/2 inch thick. Gently dust the dough with more flour.

Scatter the radicchio, garlic and basil evenly over the dough. Top evenly with the cheese, and finally the shrimp. Season to taste with salt and pepper and drizzle with a little olive oil. Quickly slide the pizza onto the hot brick or baking sheet. 

Bake until the edges are golden and crisp, 8-9 minutes. Remove the pizza when done and drizzle with olive oil. 

NOTES: this recipe was recommended with their thin crust dough. We used regular and it still cooked just fine. We kept an eye on things to make sure it was cooked all the way through, but shrimp cooks pretty quickly anyway.

Total Time: 45 minutes

Recipe from The Little Guides: Pizza