Yes, the “don't say …” comment is in the section which begins “in
more formal English”, and I agree with it.
• In more formal English, you recommend that someone do something, using
the base form of the verb (=the infinitive without ‘to’): I recommend that
she speak to a lawyer. ✗Don’t say: I recommend her to speak to a lawyer. Longman
That's probably part of the reason why, as the Ngram
shows, the “recommend someone to do something” construction is the least
common of the three. Just as a side note, the original poster asked about
“recommend”, but in the sense of “suggest that someone does something”,
“advise” is often more idiomatic. [But that's not what the poster asked
about, of course ].