When Mr. FixIt and I were visiting the Outer Banks for our anniversary, we stopped in a seafood shop to check out what the local waters were offering. Among the many delicious varieties available was a seemingly out of place item…Tomato Pie. I asked about it and they said it was a southern thing and very tasty, however…the price was outrageous and you couldn’t buy just one piece. You had to buy the whole pie. I could only think of one thing…what if we didn’t like it? I would hate to throw all that food away. So, I vowed to try making it myself when my own tomatoes were ready.

Over the weekend, we noticed the garden was heavily dotted with the bright red of ripe tomatoes. Yesterday was the first chance I’ve had to stay at home and play around in the kitchen. The first thing I did was check on my brined pickles. I hate to report they were a huge flop. I don’t know what happened. Maybe they were overripe. Maybe my brine wasn’t the right concentration. Maybe my jars weren’t sterilized. I don’t know. They were soggy and some were downright slimy. And there was mold on the surface. I wasn’t about to taste them. I just dumped them out and washed and sterilized the jars. That’s not bad…one failure in all the things I’ve cooked and canned during covid. It was disappointing, though.

Once I had that mess cleaned up, I went out and picked a bucket of tomatoes. Not all of them were ripe but I hate leaving them out there for the critters to eat. I line up the ripe ones on the counter and windowsill till they turn red. I had about eight or ten medium tomatoes ready to do something with. I scalded, peeled, and cored them and gently pressed out the majority of the seeds. Then I put them in my new food processor with the steel blade and processed them till they were smooth.

I put the tomato purée in a saucepan and simmered it till it was reduced by about a third and was the consistency of spaghetti sauce. I seasoned it with salt, pepper, garlic, oregano, paprika, and a pinch of cayenne and set it aside. I made some pie crust in the food processor and rolled out half. The other half went in the fridge to make something with today. I lined a 10” pie plate and set that aside. Then I made a roux. Are you familiar with that? You melt butter and stir in flour over a low heat. You keep stirring till the roux gets a nice golden brown, then you add the tomato sauce that has been cooling. Once the two were combined, I turned off the heat and browned some chopped up bacon till it was crispy. I drained it well on paper towels and sprinkled it in the bottom of the pie crust. Then I added a handful or two of grated mozzarella cheese. 

I put the cooled tomato sauce back in the food processor on low and added four extra large eggs, one at a time till they were fully incorporated. I preheated the oven to 375 degrees, lined a baking sheet with foil and set the pie plate on it, poured the tomato/egg mixture into the pie shell, sprinkled another small handful of grated mozzarella on top, and popped it in the oven. I baked it for 50 minutes…watching it the last ten minutes or so to make sure it didn’t burn.

We let the Tomato Pie cool a bit while we cleaned up then sat down to try it out. I have seen a dozen different recipes for Tomato Pie and it runs the gamut from nothing more than thickly sliced tomatoes baked in layers with grated cheese to a two crust version that looked kind of loose and runny. I wanted mine to look more like the one I saw in North Carolina…more like a quiche. And that’s exactly what this one looked like. And….oh, my! The flavor!!! It tasted like eating a big plate of spaghetti without the heaviness of all that pasta. I made a pie crust recipe that used butter only so the crust was very tender and flaky. It was fabulous, if I do say so myself. And Mr. FixIt loved it!

We were in such a hurry to eat, we didn’t have anything with the Tomato Pie…but it would have been lovely with a nice green salad and a glass of wine if you choose. A luscious end of summer treat made extra special with our own tomatoes. You know me…I don’t really cook with recipes so writing it like this is the best I can do and you should be able to duplicate it in your own kitchen. If you try it, let me know how it tasted!

It’s “Feel Good Friday” and cooking up something yummy in the kitchen on the Ponderosa makes me feel really good!

❤️

“Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.”

Genesis 9:3 NIV