Never mind the sticky nights, summer was made for those who love bare feet, riding the strip with the top down, and devouring cherry tomatoes straight from vine. My favorite summer meal of all time includes a very simple fresh tomato sandwich (with Blue Plate mayo) and a side of just-picked corn-on-the-cob swimming in Lands-O-Lake butter. And then there’s Tomato Pie, the angel of lazy Sunday afternoons.
This layered delight of fresh garden maters, onions, mayo and cheese in a pie crust has nothing, nothing, nothing to do with pizza. If you’re putting oregano or even more than a hint of basil on it, you’re doing it so sinfully wrong. Bless your gluttonous heart.
So here’s the thing.
It’s not supposed to taste like Italian food.
It’s supposed to taste like July on a hot summer day when your hair is scented with chlorine and you stop at that little roadside stand to pick up a watermelon or some peaches.
My grandmother used to love to stop and pick up peaches and tomatoes along the endless road to Florida. On one trip, I rubbed one of those roadside-stand peaches all over my face. Apparently, peaches have little zombie micro-needles that transfer directly to your pores, and I lived my own private hell in the back of that brown Buick station wagon.
To this day, I’m still a little afraid of peaches. But tomatoes are smooth, juice, and fleshy, and have names like Beefsteak, Better Boy and Brandywine. And once you have them coming out your ears, well it’s time to make Tomato Pie.
This recipe was given to me (hand-written) by my late Baptist-lady neighbor nearly 20 years. She basically spent her whole life in a southern kitchen, and said it was the best she’d ever had.
I agree.
Important Tips for Southern Tomato Pie:
- Peel the tomatoes with a sharp serrated knife before slicing.
- Squeeze ALL the juice out the tomatoes and dry the well with paper towels. Better yet, let them sit a while.
- I don’t use basil at all like most recent hipster recipes do. Let the simple summer flavors shine. If you can’t resist, only use a teensy tiny bit.
- Use ripe fresh garden tomatoes. If it’s not summertime, it’s not Tomato Pie time.
- It’s good all alone with a salad, as part of a vegetable plate, or as a side for grilled fish or another light meat.
Southern Summer Tomato Pie
Ingredients
- 4 large tomatoes, peeled and sliced
- 1 pie crust I use Marie Callander's
- 1 cup spring onions (different from green onions) can substitute scallions
- 3/4 cup Hellman's mayo (must be Hellman's) original recipe was 1 cup but it was too much
- 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, freshly grated
- 1 cup Monterey Jack cheese, freshly grated
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees and cook pie crust for about 10 minutes until it's starting to get done. Poke holes in bottom with fork before putting it in the oven. Let cool. Reduce oven to 300 degrees.
- Slice garden tomatoes and deseed and dry well. Make sure to remove as move juice as possible. You should have about three pounds. If not, add another one.
- Place the slices on the bottom layer of the cooled pie crust. Do NOT put a cheese layer between the pie crust and the tomatoes, even if your mother-in-law tells you to. She's wrong. I'm right.
- Sprinkle salt and pepper on tomato slices to taste.
- Cover the tomato slices with the spring onions (use both white and green parts). Remember, spring onions look a lot like green onions, but they are sweeter and have a bigger bulb. You can use scallions or green onions, but it's going to be slightly different.
- Freshly grate the cheese, and stir in the Hellman's mayo. Spread across top of pie. Don't get lazy and used pre-grated cheese.
- Bake about 25 minutes or so until it is started to turn a little golden around the edges. Don't overcook or cheese can start to get greasy.
- Let rest about 20 minutes before serving. Serve warm or room temperatures. Eat for breakast, brunch, lunch, or dinner and watch it disappear.
Another Summer Tomato Favorite
