Caramelized Onion Focaccia

Wow! I just realized it has been an entire week since i posted....what's up with that??? Its not that I haven't been doing stuff, really, I guess I've just been otherwise occupied.

Well, I have been wanting to share this with you since I made it this weekend, so I guess now is as good a time as any! See, my girl Tracy came to see me Saturday. She only lives about a half hour from me, but with our schedules, we don't see very much of each other. I did get to see more of her than usual this time, though, considering she is six months pregnant!
There is always one sure fire way to get a pregnant woman to come see you. Yep, that's right, I promised to feed her. Ok, so I've used that bribe with her for years and it has nothing to do with her being pregnant, but I used it anyway. And, I always follow through. Mama-to-be has been in the mood for pasta, so I got a bag of raw shrimp out of the freezer, and started some water to boil for spaghetti. Once the water comes to a boil, toss in the dried spaghetti and start your sauce:
In a skillet, I sauteed up some diced shallot and fresh garlic in a little bit of oil. When that started to soften, I added just a little white wine (don't freak out on me, you all know the alcohol cooks out!) and let it cook down just a touch.
Then I turned up the heat a bit, added some red pepper flakes, and the shrimp, just for a couple of minutes until the shrimp was opaque.
Add in one can of diced, fire roasted tomatoes, and you have a lovely sauce.
Pull the pasta out of the water and toss it in the pan with the sauce. Serve with freshly grated parmesan cheese and caramelized onion focaccia, a la Tyler Florence.
I caramelized the onions earlier in the day and set them aside so that I could just pop this in the oven when I started the sauce. I had had a beautiful vidalia onion on standby, but with the summer heat, it was starting to go soft on me. I didn't realize that until I was ready to start cooking, though, so I ended up using 2 red onions instead, and it worked out just fine. I also cheated in a few more ways! I used a pizza dough mix that I had in the pantry (It was a bad day for staples in my kitchen...I also had 3 tubes of Pillsbury pizza dough in the fridge, but apparently I bought them longer ago than I thought, and they were all too old, too.) and since I've been out of fresh rosemary for a while (and we all know I don't like thyme) I used some fresh oregano from my garden. All in all this turned out fabulously! I made so many substitutions that I'm not going to submit it to Tyler Florence Fridays this week, but I'm going to try doing it again sometime and actually FOLLOW the recipe! Instead of posting Tyler's recipe, I'm just going to tell you what I did.
In a large skillet, cook thinly sliced onions over medium heat, stirring only occasionally until they are caramelized. I mean it, don't over-stir it or they'll never caramelize. If you're using red onions like I did, toss in a tablespoon of sugar to help the process along.
Roll out a tube or package of pizza dough and brush it with a little olive oil. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese, some chopped herbs, and then spread the onions over the top, pushing down gently into the dough. Bake at 350 or until the crust turns golden. Cut and serve with a little more parmesan cheese. Enjoy!!