Friday night pizza

This is probably the only original recipe that I will ever post. This is my go to when I am tired. Today was very busy. My trainer comes on Friday and I had a million errands to run for both food and art class. I think we are having company for dinner tomorrow, but while in the Opera House Gourmet buying wine, I got a call from our guests saying we are having snow tomorrow. My answer was really, so bring your pj’s. We will see tomorrow, but remember, we are south of the Mason Dixon line and contrary to real life, they do not believe it snows here.


So tonight we had Linda’s shrimp pizza. When we moved to CA, we were introduced to California Pizza kitchen. This was the first time I was aware that pizza was more than sausage, mushrooms, and cheese. I fell in love with their shrimp pizza. When we moved to Pleasanton from Mountain View ,there was not one near.  They published a cookbook, but their recipe was a lot to do on a Friday night after a 4 hour commute and 8 hour work day. So I started working on a quick version. I pulled out the CA Pizza Kitchen cookbook and found the following note on the original recipe.  Jim's favorite pizza to date, 3-16-1996.  Here it is.

I buy a thin crust Boboli pizza crust. Of course, you can use whatever one you want. I only put about ¼ c of tomato pizza sauce on it as we are not fond of tomato yuck on our pizza. On top of this I put pre-sliced portabella mushrooms. About a 6-7 oz. package will cover all the crust. I cook a half pound of large shrimp, which I have always kept in the freezer. Cut them in half so they still look like shrimp but are thin, then sprinkle them on top of the mushrooms. On top of this I pile on fresh spinach. Then on top of this the cheese. I used 2 cups of pre-grated mozzarella and I C of mixed pizza cheese, but not the one with cheddar in it. I have a pizza stone that has been preheating in the oven at 450 degrees. Pop it in for 15 to 20 minutes. Jim likes his cheese browned, not burnt, so we did the whole 20 minutes. I did not time myself tonight, but I think heating the oven to the end is easily a 30 minute meal. It is faster than ordering out. This recipe serves 4-6 except in this house. Jim cuts it in 4 pieces and eats 3.

Jim served a 2008 Fairvalley Pinotage from near Paarl, South Africa, the Coastal Region. Pinotage is a cross of Pinot Noir and Cinsault.

Today I got a call from a friend who asked, “Your recipes serve 4 to 6; don’t you end up with a lot of leftovers? Not really; if Jim doesn’t eat it, we feed it to Max. Max is quite the connoisseur.

This is Jim’s favorite pizza after Italian sausage and mushroom pizza from the former Casa Roma in Miller, Gary, IN circa, the 1960’s.