Tomato Pie

I have been thinking I need to write a post about tomatoes for a while and then realized that would be a silly endeavour as I could honestly start an entire separate blog about how much I love tomatoes. So, here is a decidedly unseasonal post about one of my favourite things to do with home grown tomatoes, written wistfully while the last of my 2019 San Marzanos ripen on the counter. 

I have been following the blog (upgraded in recent years from blog to “site”) Simply Recipes for years, and the recipe for Tomato Pie caught my eye several summers ago. I have made it multiple times a summer ever since, starting with store bought crust, sometimes using a hollowed out summer squash or zucchini instead of pie crust, and this year finally evolving the recipe into a true labour of love (and multi-hour project) with a homemade crust. It's sort of like deep dish pizza, except if deep dish pizza was actually pie, i.e. the best thing ever.

The recipe as-written makes a pretty darn good pie but when you make a recipe so many times it’s inevitable to find a few ways to improve it. I also never got a fully baked pie crust by only pre-baking for 25 minutes as written; it needs at least 45.

I have and likely will never make this out of season. I’m sure it would turn out just lovely using greenhouse tomatoes, but as with many recipes I associate with summer (beet borscht is another one), it just feels a bit sacrilegious to make if I haven’t grown most of the ingredients myself. It would probably also stop feeling like a special treat if I started making it year round, and that just won’t do.

We are so lucky in Saskatchewan to have long summer days that are perfect for tomato growing and I am addicted to growing fun and fanciful varieties and figuring out how to best use them. Example - look how cute my tiny Spoon tomatoes are on top of a tomato pie! Spoon tomatoes are some of the smallest you can grow and apparently the closest you can get to The Original Tomato, but they are annoying to pick, not especially flavourful (but decent), and a lot of work for a few handfuls of tomatoes but just LOOK HOW CUTE AND PRETTY. They are about as whimsical as a tomato can get and they make me very happy. I am not ashamed to say that I grew them this year specifically to make pretty food.

Bonus because this post is low on pictures, here they are peeking out of a Greek salad:

Here is my recipe for tomato pie, adapted from Simply Recipes. I’m not going to pretend it’s a particularly simple weeknight dinner. While none of the steps are difficult, it does take a while but it’s worth every minute. If you love tomatoes you won't be sorry.

Time: Approximately 3 hours from start to finish if you're making your own crust, but only about 1 hour of actual hands-on time

Serves: Realistically, 3-4 people as a main course

Ingredients:

1 9-inch pie shell (I follow the combo butter/shortening recipe here but use bacon fat instead of shortening)

Cooking fat of your choice (I like bacon fat, olive oil is fine)

½ cup chopped sweet onion

1-2 garlic cloves, pressed

Pepper to taste

1 cup of chopped beet leaves, swiss chard, or other greens

3 cups of chopped, salted, and squeezed tomatoes (see original recipe if my directions don't make sense, I use an old fashioned potato ricer. Do not skip the squeezing unless you are using extremely low-moisture tomatoes)

2 tbsp cornstarch

¼ cup chopped basil

1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated

¼ cup mayonnaise

A few dashes of hot sauce of your choice (green Cholula, or Tapatio works well)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Cover the pie crust in foil and fill with pie weights. Bake for 45 minutes.

Liberally salt the chopped tomatoes. Don't worry about using too much, a lot of it will drain off. Let sit for at least 10 minutes. 

While the crust is baking, brown the onions in the oil/fat. Add garlic and greens and cook until greens are wilted.

Squeeze as much liquid as you can out of the salted tomatoes (but you don't have to go nuts, the cornstarch will take care of whatever you leave). Mix the tomatoes, contents of your frying pan, basil, as much pepper as you feel is necessary, and cornstarch together.

Mix the cheese, mayo, and hot sauce together.

Remove the foil from the crust (don’t throw it out yet) and put in the tomato filling. Top with the cheese mixture. Top with extra tomatoes if you wish (make sure they are low moisture so you don’t end up with soggy topping).

Bake for about 45 minutes or until you see the filling bubbling. Let sit for about 10 minutes before cutting. If the crust starts browning too much, cover with the leftover foil.

If you have leftovers do yourself a favour and reheat them in the oven, not the microwave.

Reminder that this filling/topping is also excellent in a zucchini boat, if you are avoiding carbs or have a giant zucchini to use up.