Hey Ashley, Once I researched a lot about this like you did. 'recommend sb. to do' is not common. I checked the Oxford dictionary you wrote about and the examples were mostly in passive forms. Like "They were recommended to do this/that. There is even another form you can use as in; I recommend he do that. You can check Macmillan dictionary for all the forms as well. I understand the confusion. Hope this helps :)

Yes, it's correct. There are quite a few discussions about this point. I think the confusion comes from the fact that most people focus on the verb, which isn't the issue. 'Him' can be used as the dative pronoun without a preposition, as pronouns used to be used in declensional languages. Ie. it is perfectly correct (if antiquated) to say: 'I gave it him'. Matat