My husband's favorite tomato pie recipe came from here. Not on my PC right now, but I think it was Glenda's recipe.

You can use dry beans for blind baking your crust ... reusable too... OR you might try Lars' cottage cheese pie crust ... a proven winner ...

I blind bake most pies especially quiche types and have used the same beans for a decade. Blind baking is crucial, imo. I like to sprinkle parmesan on after baking but still hot, for savory pies, creating another layer against sogginess.

I love tomato pie!

I love tomato pie!

L, I also use pinto beans as pie weights. I've had the same couple of pounds for several years now, I just make sure that they are labelled so I don't try to eat them!

Also, be sure to line the pie crust with parchment or foil before filling it with the beans, don't allow yourself to get distracted and just dump them in before you place your liner. Ask me how I know this. (grin)

Annie

I did that too, once, Annie -- as you notice I said "once" -- one time is all you need to realize that it is not "a good thing"!

You should try dehydrating the tomatoes. It really concentrates the flavor as well as eliminating the watery problem.

You just have to adjust the recipe because the tomato will be twice as sweet and stronger in taste.

dcarch

So maybe drying them out a bit in a low temp. oven is better than salting and draining them. The only thing that has worked for me on is cucumbers when I make pickles. And slightly with eggplant. With fruit and sugar, it zaps the taste when drained. Does not save flavor to cook it either, sugar caramelizes and that is not good for the lighter flavored fruits. The key is to not have watery fruit to begin with . . . and that's equally tricky. I think one of the reasons my pie turned out pretty good is my cousins tomatoes were darn near perfect in their texture! Tomatoes hate too much water and our dry summer has been great. But now, just when they need the dry the most, it is raining all the time . . . I may have to find an additional recipe for green tomato pie!

l pink, I live in the south-east and honestly have never heard of tomato pie but it sounds tasty. Marycharm's recipe of using roma or plum tomatoes and seeding them seems to make sense also.

Is this served as a side or main dish?

2ManyDiversions, just to clarify, this is Glenda's recipe, not mine. I have had great success with Glenda's recipes over the years, they're always crowd pleasers. I serve this as a brunch or lunch main dish with a salad (sort of like a quiche) or as a side with a meat, depends upon the people, we have some men and kids who would only want a sliver with their steak or chicken but 'the girls' usually like it as a main dish.

I made tomato pie once, it was really good, I should do it again. I cut down on the mayonnaise, used 1/2 cup.

1 9" pie shell

1/2 onion, chopped

3-4 plum tomatoes, cut in half horizontally and seeded and squeezed of excess juice; coarsely chopped (3 cups)

1/4 cup sliced basil

2 cups grated cheese

3/4 cup mayonnaise (I use 1/2 cup)

1 tsp hot sauce, or to taste

Preheat oven to 350° and cook pie shell 8-10 minutes until lightly golden. If using a frozen crust, cook longer.

Squeeze as much moisture out of the tomatoes as you can using a colander or towel.

Saute onions until nicely caramelized and sprinkle in pie crust. Spread tomatoes over, then basil. Combine the mayonnaise and shredded cheese and hot sauce It should be the consistency of a gooey snowball.

Spread over the tomatoes and bake 25-40 minutes until bubbly and heated through.

YUM! I've wanted to try making a tomato pie for some time, but never seem to get around to it. I think the sheer caloric content is what makes me hesitate.

I make broiled tomato & cheese toasts w/ basically the same ingredients, but I use snipped green onion tops.

FWIW, when I make a fruit pie, I sprinkle a heaping Tbs. of minute tapioca over the piecrust before adding the filling.

This is a horrible tomato year here, or I would have an excess of tomatoes to experiment with. My favorite is tomato dumplings or tomato cobbler, but I sure wouldn't turn down a slice of anyone's tomato pie!

Annie

How do you do the cobbler Annie?

L, the cobbler is really easy and not really sweet, it's more savory. The one I use most is from Mark Bittman, and I use canned tomatoes in the winter instead of fresh, just drain them a bit and they cook down a bit more, but still good. There are more elaborate recipes out there, with things like leeks and gruyere cheese, but this one is fast and good.

Tomato Cobbler

Oil or butter for the baking dish
3 pounds ripe tomatoes (8 to 10 medium), cored and cut into wedges
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more if needed
1 cup cornmeal
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, cut into large pieces and refrigerated until very cold
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup buttermilk, plus more if needed

Grease a square baking dish or a deep pie plate with the butter or oil. Preheat the oven to 375˚F. Put the tomato wedges in a large bowl and sprinkle with the cornstarch and some salt and pepper. Toss gently to combine.

Put the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and baking soda in a food processor along with a teaspoon of salt. Add the butter and pulse a few times until the mixture looks like coarse bread crumbs. Add the egg and buttermilk and pulse a few times more, until the mixture comes together in a ball. If the mixture doesn’t come together, add a spoonful or two of flour. If the mixture is too dry, add a few drops of buttermilk.

Gently toss the tomato mixture again and spread it in the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Drop spoonfuls of the batter on top and smooth a bit with a knife. (Try to leave some gaps so that the steam from the tomato mixture will have a place to escape as the cobbler bakes.) Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until golden on top and bubbly underneath. Cool to just barely warm or room temperature. To serve, scoop servings out with a large spoon.

Annie

YUM Annie. My neighbor has taken to putting big piles of tomatoes out in the front yard with a "free" sign on them. I haven't been canning, too hectic, so I might make the cobbler if I can score a few more of the freebies.

L, I hope those tomatoes are better than mine. We got pretty much no rain in July, then 7 inches in about a week. All my tomatoes have hollow centers filled with a watery liquid, they just kind of "squish" when you pick them. Good thing I canned a LOT of tomatoes last year!

Sol's tomato pie is pretty good too, and I don't think you would go wrong with Glenda's recipe either.

Martha, I also only did that ONCE. My crust was strangely bumpy and tasted vaguely like pinto beans. Now I'm more careful, having retained that particular learning experience.

Annie

Yes, the tomatoes are kinda sub par. I have to throw a lot out. :(

Isn't pizza a sort of tomato pie? I've never made Chicago deep dish pizza, but I think it could also resemble a tomato pie. I would rather make a tomato quiche than a tomato pie.

I grew up in Memphis, and never heard of tomato pie, altho it's something I'd love. Here in Philly, there is tomato pie in all the stores and Italian bakeries, but it's pizza dough with tomato sauce.

Well that's why I said "southern style" to try and distinguish it but my research says that it may have just originated in Southern Living magazine. It is quite unique with the mayo. I didn't think I would like it but I did. You can cut down on the mayo considerably and it is still good. I cut it down from 3/4 to 1/3 but I also added some neufchatel cheese. Next time I will try 1/4 of both mayo and neufchatel. I also added bread crumbs and Parm. cheese.

L, I don't know about Southern much either, but Elery's sister, who lives in Tennessee (and was born there and lived there all her 70+ years), made tomato pie the first time I met her. It had the mayo and the cheese, and she said she liked Paula Deen's recipe the best. I was also told that cornbread couldn't have sugar or it was cake, and it must be made with white cornmeal, yellow is just sick and wrong, some kind of a Northern mistake, LOL.

Annie

Lars, you make an excellent point! Yes, I'd think pizza was kind of a tomato pie! Clever man... : )

I suspect that it's more a local dish than "Southern" and gained wide-spread notoriety from Southern Living and/or Paula Deen in more recent years, maybe 20 years or so? Here's a Philly tomato pie.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/philadelphia-tomato-pie/15381/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.0a222b5fc4ef

and

https://www.eater.com/2016/8/19/12525602/tomato-pie-philadelphia-new-jersey

(note that last article talks about the SOuthern pie as originating in the Carolinas, hence the Deen connection.)

No sugar in cornbread or hushpuppies! I have used yellow cornmeal before, but I much prefer white.

Sushupup, I suspect you are correct about the timing of the spread of the tomato pie. I hadn't had it growing up, but remember it from the time frame you mentioned.

Having live near Philly, I know tomato pie is the version with the yeast crust. We don't have either here in Michigan.