Tomato Pie
This cheesy and savory tomato pie is so easy to make and so delicious! It’s the perfect way to enjoy those fresh garden tomatoes!
What’s that? Another fresh tomato recipe?!? Yes! I told you, they are coming out of my ears right now. I’ve seen people posting versions of this tomato pie for years, and have been totally intrigued. But since some of my family members hate raw tomatoes, I’ve always been a little hesitant to try it. My husband won’t eat tomatoes on pizza (which is very sad, since I love a good margarita pizza), and picks them out of most things unless they are cooked way down. (Ironically, one of his favorite foods is this roasted tomato soup. Go figure!) My oldest isn’t quite as picky about tomatoes as he is, but she definitely does not enjoy a raw tomato. So I was a little skeptical that the tomatoes in this pie would actually cook down to the point that my husband and daughter would eat it.
The result? I was pleasantly surprised at how much they both liked it! My oldest especially loved it and asked to have the leftovers in her school lunch the next day. My husband said it tasted great and he really enjoyed it, but he was a little bothered by the idea of eating something called tomato pie. So I guess I should come up with an alternate name for this dish, and then we’ll all be on board with it! 🙂
The recipe is a little weird, with just a handful of ingredients. And let me tell you, it took me… a while… to get over the idea of mayonnaise in my pie. Here is where I confess that I am generally pretty mayonnaise-phobic and only like one brand of mayonnaise, and only in very small amounts (like scraped very sparingly over the bread in a turkey sandwich). What I can tell you is that you don’t taste the mayonnaise in this pie. It’s just cheesy and tomato-y and delicious! My toddler kept calling it “za-za” (her word for pizza) and that’s really what it tastes like! It’s like a pizza, but with a pie crust instead of a pizza dough crust.
It’s very important to get the excess moisture out of the tomatoes before you assemble the pie, or the pie will end up a soggy mess. I lined a baking sheet with paper towels, laid out all of the tomato slices in a single layer, then sprinkled them with kosher salt and added another layer of paper towels on top. The salt helps to draw the moisture out of the tomatoes (yay, chemistry!). Kosher salt has less sodium than table salt, so if you don’t have any kosher salt on hand and need to substitute table salt, you will want to use it a little less liberally so your finished dish isn’t unbearably salty.
This tomato pie is such a delicious way to use fresh garden tomatoes!
Tomato Pie
Print Recipe
Ingredients
for the crust:
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup cold butter
- 1/4 cup buttermilk or milk plus a splash of vinegar
for the filling:
- 6-10 medium tomatoes about 2 pounds, cored and sliced
- 2-3 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
Instructions
- To make the crust, in a medium bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together the flour and salt. Grate the cold butter into the flour mixture, and cut in using a pastry blender or the paddle attachment, until the pieces of butter are no larger than pea sized. Add the buttermilk, and mix until the dough just starts to come together. Turn out onto a floured surface and gently work into a ball, handling as little as possible. Shape the dough into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least twenty minutes, or until ready to use.
- While the crust is chilling, line a baking sheet with paper towels and lay out the tomato slices in an even layer. Sprinkle the tomatoes with the kosher salt, then add a layer of paper towels on top. Let rest 10 minutes, then gently pat the tomatoes to remove the excess moisture. In a small bowl, mix together the mozzarella, mayonnaise, garlic powder, and basil.
- Roll out the pie dough on a lightly floured surface to fit your pie pan. Press it gently into the pan and crimp or roll the edges to make a crust. Place 1/3 of the tomato slices in a single layer on the bottom of the pie dish (a little overlapping is fine). Spread half of the mozzarella mixture over the tomatoes, then layer another 1/3 of the tomato slices over the top. Spread the remaining mozzarella mixture over the top, then top with the last 1/3 of the tomato slices. Bake 35-45 minutes, until the crust is golden brown.
