Generally speaking, we don’t use a lot of salad dressing around here, despite the fact that summer finds us consuming an awful lot of salad. Growing up, my family always had several varieties of salad dressing available, but once I married Brian we switched to making our own vinaigrette on a nightly basis to top our greens.
But when the folks at Clever Girls offered me the opportunity to try out Marzetti’s Simply Dressed salad dressing, I decided it was a good time to see what was available. They have 10 varieties; we opted to try the Champagne flavor. As you can see from the back of the bottle, it measures up pretty well: no preservatives, no HFCS, and only 12 ingredients–all recognizable. The dressing is a fairly thick vinaigrette with decent sized red pepper and spice pieces. The taste was smooth with a slight champagne kick. It was just different enough from a standard vinaigrette to be interesting.
It’s autumn now and we’re pretty much done with salads for the year. Brian suggested we use the dressing as a pizza sauce, which I thought was a brilliant idea. The pizza had a fresh, bright flavor provided by the dressing and we really enjoyed it. Each of the marinated shrimp provided an extra flavorful bite to the meal. If I ever find myself in need of a bottled dressing in the future, Marzetti’s Simply Dressed will be near the top of the list. I’d certainly purchase it again.
Champagne Shrimp Pizza
The recipe makes one 12" pizza. We used precooked frozen shrimp, which were defrosted before use. You could use uncooked shrimp, but would need to adjust the recipe to include cooking them before topping the pizza. Marinating uncooked shrimp would probably result in more flavor from the dressing being absorbed by the shrimp. We cooked our pizza on a stoneware pizza stone, but you could also use a baking sheet or metal pizza pan.
Ingredients
- 25 medium cooked shrimp tails removed
- 1/2 cup Marzetti Simply Dressed Champagne dressing
- Dough for 1 pizza crust I used this recipe
- 1 cup spinach cut into strips
- 1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Marinate the shrimp by placing them in a small dish (I used a loaf pan) and pouring the champagne dressing over them. Allow to marinate in the dressing for at least 30 minutes. If you haven’t already prepped the other ingredients, do so now.
- Place the pizza stone in the oven, turn it on to 425 degrees and allow the stone to preheat along with the oven.
- When the shrimp are done marinating, roll out the pizza dough on a floured surface into a 12” crust. Remove the stone from the oven (using oven mitts, of course!), and transfer the crust to the stone. Remove several spoonfuls of dressing from the marinating dish and spread the dressing over the pizza crust.
- Cover the pizza dough and dressing with the remainder of the ingredients: shrimp, mozzarella, spinach and Parmesan cheese.
- Cook the pizza for about 8 minutes, or until done to your liking.
- Remove from the oven, allow to cool for a couple minutes, slice and enjoy!

Champagne Shrimp Pizza
Ingredients
- 25 medium cooked shrimp tails removed
- 1/2 cup Marzetti Simply Dressed Champagne dressing
- Dough for 1 pizza crust I used this recipe
- 1 cup spinach cut into strips
- 1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Marinate the shrimp by placing them in a small dish (I used a loaf pan) and pouring the champagne dressing over them. Allow to marinate in the dressing for at least 30 minutes. If you haven’t already prepped the other ingredients, do so now.
- Place the pizza stone in the oven, turn it on to 425 degrees and allow the stone to preheat along with the oven.
- When the shrimp are done marinating, roll out the pizza dough on a floured surface into a 12” crust. Remove the stone from the oven (using oven mitts, of course!), and transfer the crust to the stone. Remove several spoonfuls of dressing from the marinating dish and spread the dressing over the pizza crust.
- Cover the pizza dough and dressing with the remainder of the ingredients: shrimp, mozzarella, spinach and Parmesan cheese.
- Cook the pizza for about 8 minutes, or until done to your liking.
- Remove from the oven, allow to cool for a couple minutes, slice and enjoy!
I think I need to try this one…simple, healthy and looks delicious!