Cheddar Tomato Pie Recipe

Cool mornings and evenings bookend the days and it’s getting dark earlier. Autumn is just around the corner.

But even as we throw on long-sleeved shirts and watch the yellow school buses roll by, signs of summer remain: Westchester Greenhouse, my local farm stand overflows with a variety of luscious, local tomatoes.

By mid-September, we’ll see fewer and less-perfect tomatoes. The farm’s bins and quart baskets will fill instead with apples, pumpkins and squash.

That’s why, while I can, I try to to include as many fresh tomatoes and tomato recipes in meals as possible. At Copywriters’ Kitchen we’ll gratefuly eat these summer delicacies up to the last yellow-green tomato of early October.

In addition to No-Cook Summer Tomato Pasta, this recipe for Cheddar Tomato Pie is one of our family’s perennial favorites. Its rich, buttery crust perfectly complements sliced, juicy tomatoes baked under a blanket of cheddar cheese and scallions.

Adapted from a California Heritage Junior League Cookbook, circa 1970, Cheddar Tomato Pie makes a festive accompaniment to grilled grassfed meat or chicken. And since it’s equally toothsome served warm or at room temperature, this savory pie makes a great addition to your Labor Day picnic or buffet.

Cheddar Tomato Pie Recipe

1 unbaked pie shell: see Easy Homemade Pie Crust Recipe below or use a store-bought shell
3-4 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded and sliced
1/2 cup scallions, sliced
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon dried basil or oregano
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Make a pie shell, see directions below, or remove store-bought pie shell from freezer.
3. Peel and seed the tomatoes: Bring 4 cups of water to a boil in a medium-sized saucepan. Plunge as many tomatoes as will fit into the pan. Let boil for about a minute. Remove tomatoes from pan with a fork and run cold water over them. The skin should split, see photo above. If not, stick the tomatoes back in the boiling water for another 30 seconds. Cool tomatoes under cold running water. Peel their skins and slice off and reserve the tops of the tomatoes. This reveals the tomatoes’ seed-filled inner channels. With your finger—if you know another method, tell me—scoop out the seeds.
4. Thickly slice the tomatoes.
5. In a medium bowl mix scallions, grated cheese, mayonnaise and basil or oregano.
6. Place a layer of sliced tomatoes in the unbaked pie shell and sprinkle tomatoes with salt and pepper. Repeat with another layer of sliced tomatoes, salt and pepper.
7. Spread cheese and scallion mixture over top of sliced tomatoes, blanketing them as completely as possible.
8. Bake the pie for 30-35 minutes until top is golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Serves 6-8

Treat your family to homemade pie crust

This pie crust gives you the best of both worlds: You get butter’s rich taste and shortening’s easy manageability and flakiness. That said, the less you handle pie dough the better. For the lightest, flakiest crust, blend ingredients quickly, use as little water as possible and don’t knead or squeeze the dough.

Flaky Butter and Shortening Pie Crust

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
6 tablespoons butter, softened slightly
4 tablespoons shortening
1-3 tablespoons ice water

1. In a medium-sized bowl, blend flour and salt.
2. With a pastry blender, a whisk or your fingers, cut in butter and shortening. Butter should be slightly cold, but soft enough to incorporate into flour and salt mixture. When I first started making pie crusts I managed the butter’s contradictory cold-soft state by grating the butter: It stayed cold enough to remain solid in the dough mixture, but airy enough to blend. Today I soften the butter ever so slightly by microwaving it 2-3 seconds at a time. If you opt for nuking, proceed carefully. The goal is soft—not warm or melted—butter. Blend the fats into the flour and salt until the mixture is mealy.
3. Fill a small glass with ice cubes and water. Sprinkle a tablespoon of this ice water over the flour and butter mixture, tossing with a whisk or your fingers.
4. Press the dough together. If the mound holds, you’ve added enough water. Sometimes it only takes a tablespoon—moisture levels in butter and flour vary. If the mixture is dry and crumbly, however, add another tablespoon of ice water, toss and gather into a mound to see if it holds together.
5. Once the dough holds a ball shape, transfer it to a sheet of wax paper laid out on a flat surface. Push the dough ball down slightly and cover with another sheet of wax paper. If my gourmand son is reading this he will disagree violently, but now you are ready to roll out the dough. (My son insists on chilling the dough before rolling it out. I feel this makes the dough denser and less flaky.)
6. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a circle. You can pinch off and patch some dough to fill in gaps and form an even circular shape. The dough should extend about 1 1/2 inches beyond the pie pan on all sides—to allow for the pie’s crust.
7. Carefully peel off the top layer of wax paper, place the pie pan in the center and flip the dough and pie pan.
8. Peel off the remaining layer of wax paper. If dough is too sticky you can place the pie pan, dough and wax paper in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes. The wax paper should peel off easily.
9. Shape a fluted crust.
10. Chill unbaked pie crust for around 30 minutes. Chilling helps the crust hold together and prevents it from melting when you bake it. Just before you’re ready to use the pie shell, remove it from the fridge. Prick the shell’s bottom and sides multiple times—around fifty pricks—with a fork. This keeps the crust from bubbling and bucking when you bake it. Fill and bake (or pre-bake) the shell immediately.

Makes one 9″ pie shell with generous crust.