I was scrolling through my blog and came to realize out of the last 12 postings, only two recipes have been for non-sweets.  Sweets are my forte, but I figured a dinner recipe was long over-due, and have I got a doozy for you!

A couple MySpace friends inspired this one.  Through MySpace, I’m connected to a great network of women who love to cook and are so supportive and fun.  Kim, the one responsible for hooking me up with most of my foodie friends, posted a recipe for Chicken Bacon Ranch pizza yesterday that had me drooling over my keyboard.  I’d been wanting to make a pizza that my friend Suzie posted on her blog that had shrimp on it, so I decided to meld the two recipes into one.  So here it is, the final masterpiece.  And it would be just as good with chicken, which I plan to make next.

Shrimp and Bacon Ranch Pizza
I made this in a large 14” pan so if you’re making a smaller pizza, adjust the ingredients accordingly.

Ingredients
Your favorite pizza dough (I used an entire recipe of Wolfgang Puck’s dough)
¾ c ranch dressing, divided (I used homemade—the bomb!)
½ t dill (dried)
8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese
6 oz. frozen cooked salad shrimp, thawed
1 T. extra-virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled (I used turkey bacon)
½ cup chopped grape tomatoes

Directions
Heat oven to 350°F. Fit dough onto a pizza pan sprayed with cooking oil and bake for 7 minutes. While it’s baking, stir the dill into the dressing. Remove the crust and set oven temperature to 450 degrees. Spread ½ cup dressing over the crust, then sprinkle the mozzarella over it. No need to wait until the oven has preheated, just pop it in for 5-10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted. While it’s baking, mix the shrimp with olive oil and garlic until coated.

Remove pizza from oven. Top pizza evenly with shrimp, bacon and tomato, then drizzle the remaining dressing over everything. Return to oven; bake an additional 5-7 minutes or until shrimp is thoroughly heated. Cut & serve warm.

Nutritional Info per 1/8 of recipe (based on the same ingredients I used. You can lighten it up by using less cheese & light mayo in the dressing.): 440 cal, 23g fat, 38g carb, 18g protein.

Recipe inspired by Kim and Suzie

This recipe is entered in the Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook contest. Click on the box to vote! :)