Friday, June 28, 2019

Extra Bonus Post!

Okay. Tomato pie. If you google "Tomato Pie, recipe" you'll get a lot of hits. And they can range from the fancy gourmet end of the spectrum to the simplest.
The pie I made this week was far more on the simple side. When you're dealing with the freshest and best tomatoes I don't think you need to fool around with them too much. In fact, the less fooling around with the better. Also? There's no way around it- this is not health food and although you could figure out some ways to make it less lethal, you'd just be making it less delicious so accept the fact that this is not something you need to make and/or eat on a regular basis. In fact, it should almost be ceremonial in my opinion, and only made when the very best tomatoes are right there, staring you in the face saying, "Eat me!"

So. Here's how I made it.
I made a pie shell and prebaked it to the point where it was done-ish but not browned. No. I do not have exact instructions for this. If you have a pie crust recipe you love, use it. If you don't want to make your pie crust by hand, buy one at the store. The better the crust the better the pie but store-bought is not always inferior to homemade.
As some of us who are not pie pros know.

I sliced my tomatoes about a quarter of an inch thick. Or so. They shouldn't be too thick or too thin.
That's helpful, right?
I set the slices on layers of paper towels and salted them and let them drain. I covered them with some more layers of paper towels (you could do this with clean dish towels, too) and pressed very gently. I didn't want to squeeze them, just relieve them of some of their excess juices.

I sliced a sweet onion into as thin a slices as I could and separated the rings. I was not obsessive about this. I did not cook them before I used them in the pie. I also sliced a few leeks from my garden but they are quite small and scallions would be just as good. And I chopped up some fresh basil. Like- a small handful. You could use more!

I layered the tomato slices, the onions, the leeks, and the basil and gave a little more salt to each layer and peppered generously. There were two layers, I think. Doesn't really matter.

Then I mixed about a cup of good mayonnaise with probably 3/4's of a cup of grated cheddar and 3/4's of a cup of grated parmesan. Spread that heavenly elixir on top of the tomatoes and bake at 375 degrees until it's all browned and the tomatoes appear to be cooked. You don't want them to be mush but you want them to be cooked. Half an hour? I don't know.

Don't drop the pie when taking it in or out of the oven. If you do, scape it up and eat it anyway.

Sorry for the vagueness here. This is how I cook. Feel free to play around with these general instructions if you want.

Questions? Ask away in comments.

Love...Ms. Moon

4 comments:

  1. I kept waiting to come to the "not health food" part. I never did find it. I mean, what is a tomato sammie without Helmans? Grated cheddar is always fine. Dairy, you know. Thanks for the recipe. I know how to use my new electric oven, so I could do this, now.

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  2. You cook how I cook. And how my mom cooks. And how my grandma cooked. Your recipe makes perfect sense and it sounds amazing.

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  3. I made a version of a tomato pie once that seemed very much like this, but with the addition of cooked, crumbled bacon. That's the only thing I can think of that might improve this recipe because bacon is the food of the gods, as we all know!

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  4. Ms.Moon,
    Thank you so much for the Tomato Pie recipe. I had a feeling that this was what I was thinking of. I have made it in the past except I add Yellow Crook Squash. It is really good and I cannot make a pie crust for the world so I always buy mine. Thank you once more... Yum... Beth

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