This is the tomato pie I make at least once every summer…because it’s a real winner.
I just scrolled through a whole lot of my Instagram to find my first tomato pie post and it was five years ago!! I suppose that doesn’t seem like that long, but considering it’s about 1/6th of my total life…I’d say it’s a significant amount of time. While my photography has changed (read: improved, hopefully), my love of this summer pie has never wavered.
My brother’s fiancée’s mom first made this pie for a summer dinner and it was love at first sight. I’m a red-blooded tomato lover through and through so this speaks to me on all levels. Where are all my tomato-haters at? I can’t fathom this. I cannot imagine my life without tomatoes.
When I was young, my grandma taught me to slice a tomato and sprinkle sugar on top. I pop cherry tomatoes in my mouth like candy. I would not willingly choose to eat a salad without tomatoes on it. My little dog, Oliver, even loves tomatoes!
I have to admit that pie-making and I don’t really get along. It’s one of my two trouble spots in the kitchen still (omelets are my well-documented other problem child). I tried to make my mom a pie for her birthday this year and I couldn’t stop laughing at the result. There was a hole in the dough so the sugary filling leaked under the pie, forming an unbreakable seal between the pie dough and the pie plate…so we ate the pie by scooping out whatever bits we could, laughing, at the counter. Oh, and I used a deep-dish pie plate for a regular-sized pie, so the crust was about three times taller than the filling. *Face palm*
Weirdly, this is the one pie I can generally execute to pretty delicious results! This has a buttery cornmeal crust that gets so beautifully golden and crisp, that it’s almost foolproof. The filling is caramelized onions mixed with cheese, herbs and breadcrumbs to give you some richness, and is topped with tons of heirloom tomatoes for the sharp, acidic bite to counterbalance the whole pie. Please, if you take no other advice I ever give, take this piece: let this pie sit for at least 20 minutes before cutting!! This will help the filling set and settle some of the juices that you will see on top of the pie (this will likely trouble you when you first see it-don’t fret). Giving the pie a little extra wait time will help ensure the bottom crust stays crisp and the pie cuts into nice, clean slices.
Okay, I lied…I have two pieces of advice: plan much more time to make this than you think you will need. Start making the crust in the morning to give the dough time to chill, bake and cool. The caramelized onions will take almost an hour, so yet another reason to plan ahead! Plus the cooking and resting time for the entire pie…this can quickly add up to a 9:00 dinner time if you don’t plan well (I’ve done it). I almost always underestimate how long it will take me to make this, even though I should know better.
This pie is a real show-stopper, especially if you use a variety of colorful heirloom tomatoes. Ripe, red tomatoes are perfectly fine and will still give you a beautiful pie to serve! The leftovers reheat well in the oven, which is even better, right?! Serve with a delicious salad on the side and your job is done.
[tasty-recipe id=”32306″]
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