Tomato Pie

Learn to make tomato pie, as it's a great recipe to use up tomatoes at this time of year. Any tomatoes will do, but if you have some that have dropped from the vine or have a bit of soft spot to cut off, this is perfect because they are all hidden in the pie anyway. I'll include the actual recipe at the end.

Full disclosure: I still make it a bit too sloppy, but I'm getting better. Perhaps you can learn from my mistakes. 

To start you need a standard pie crust. I make it easy on myself sometimes and use a frozen pie crust, so make sure it is thawed, which doesn't take long.

When thawed, I crimp the edges for two reasons: it makes it look more "homemade", it helps hold in the filling better.

You need to "blind bake" the crust. That means it needs to be put in the oven for several minutes to crisp up first before you put anything into it. I imagine that's because it is a rather sloppy pie in the end.

This time I took a suggestion from the interweb and put in some parchment paper (scrunch it up first, then smooth it out, so it fits better into the crust) and then poured some form of hard, dried beans onto it. I had lentils, so I used those. Note: in retrospect, I would choose a different method - the crust under the parchment remained moist, not baked, so I had to stick it back in the oven to crisp up a bit. Next time, use fancy baking weights to blind bake and no parchment! The reason for weights is to keep the bottom of the crust from bubbling up while it bakes.

While the pie is in the oven, choose approximately 4 or 5 tomatoes. It all depends on how big your tomatoes are, perhaps 3 or 4 if they are quite large. Slice them in "medium slices" and let them start to drain. I use a colander for this. Some recipes suggest to sprinkle them with salt to leach some of the moisture out. I don't bother. 

In the end, I needed more than this. You can also place the slices on paper towel to absorb moisture. A quicker way to deal with sloppiness is to just pop out some of the seed casings which hold a great deal of moisture. If I were to do it again, I'd seed them, and  lay them on paper towels.

In addition to tomatoes, you need a bunch of green onions, chopped.

You also need some chopped garlic. You can use cloves, or pre-chopped in a jar.

As well, you need several basil leaves. It is best with fresh basil, which you may also have in your garden, but I imagine dried basil is fine, too.

Begin assembling the tomato pie by putting in a layer of slices in the bottom of the pre-baked crust.

There is no need to be precise with this. Just remember you have another layer to go, plus a topping, so don't make that first layer too high. Next, sprinkle with half of the combined onions, basil, garlic, salt, and pepper.

Then lay down the next (last) layer of tomato slices.

Don't forget to sprinkle salt and pepper on the layer. Follow by putting the rest of the onion, garlic, basil mixture on top.

Now, you create the topping using shredded cheddar and mozzarella cheese mixed with salad dressing (like miracle whip) or mayonnaise. I did not have any mozzarella, so I used some parmesan cheese instead. I prefer mozzarella, for what it's worth.

"Spread" the cheese mixture on top of the pie. You will not be able to actually spread it, you'll more likely plop clumps of it from a spoon, but it will spread as it melts in the oven.

Finally you bake your tomato pie. This is how mine looked.

As you can see from the picture, I put my pie crust, which comes frozen in the tin foil form, inside another pie pan. This is because I always end up cutting through the tin foil when slicing. As well, I find the tin foil pans too flimsy for a substantial pie like this.

You may want to let your tomato pie sit a bit before slicing. Mine was still pretty liquidy, but really yummy regardless. As I said earlier, I think getting a bit more moisture out of the tomatoes wouldn't be a bad idea next time.

Tomato Pie Recipe

Ingredients:

1 pie crust

aprx. 4 tomatoes, sliced

aprx. 10 basil leaves, chopped

1/2 cup chopped green onions

2 cups (or less) grated cheddar and mozzarella cheese, combined

3/4 cup miracle whip salad dressing or mayonnaise (or less)

salt and pepper

aprx. 1 clove minced garlic

Blind bake (pre-bake) pie crust at 375 degrees for 10 minutes, remove from oven, and reduce oven heat to 350 degrees. Lay tomato slices in a colander and sprinkle with salt and let drain, or pop seed pockets out and lay on paper towels to absorb moisture. 

Lay half of the tomato slices in the pie crust. Mix the green onions, basil and garlic together in a small bowl. Sprinkle half of this mixture over the tomato layer. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. 

Follow with a layer of the remaining tomato slices. Sprinkle with the rest of the onion/basil/garlic mixture and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Create topping by combining grated cheddar and mozzarella cheese (or cheese of your choice) with mayonnaise or salad dressing. Spread this mixture on top of the pie. 

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Let sit a few minutes before slicing.