#tomato pie

Food: tomato pie

As we get deeper into harvest season, I find myself - as always - absolutely inundated with tomatoes. This is the pure abundance of summer: more produce than a human can rightfully eat. It is time for me to start doing my late summer abundance magic.

This is some UPG here, but to me, having so much of a particular food that you can't physically eat all of it is the purest nature of abundance. Whether you choose to share it or to preserve it in some way is up to you. I am prone to doing both - passing on some to my friends and loved ones, and also canning and freezing some for the dreary Winter months when nothing in the world tastes good.

In this season, I weave abundance magic into everything I prepare because it is so easy to feel abundant, and (for me personally) feeling abundant is half of the battle. This is somewhat UPG here, but any plant with which you have grown an abundance of IS a symbol of abundance. That seems pretty straightforward to me.

Each of these begins with a whispered prayer of abundance, something like: May I have as much as we might need, and enough to share.

Each of the recipes I share in this season is meant to be abundant and luxurious - designed to make you feel and connect with the richness of the season through the use of cheese and butter. I have made these recipes again and again, slowly adapting them over the years to make them my own. For the most part, the herb choices are personal - use what you have (ideally what you have grown and harvested yourself). Many herbs have associations with abundance and can be substituted to make the perfect dish for you.

I begin with tomato pie, the richest and most dreamy of the many tomato recipes that I make year after year. This recipe was given to me by my friend Sue, who's been making it herself for many years. The recipe originally came from a clipping of the Boston Globe from the 1970s and called for using Bisquick batter as the base for the pie. I'm gluten-free, so I had to make my own adaptations - this is my tried and true gluten-free biscuit recipe; I just use any 1 for 1 gluten-free flour to make this.

This pie is decadent and not the slightest bit healthy. That's the point. It's about reveling in the richness of the harvest, of enjoying every ounce of tomato to the fullest. I use Olive Oil mayo out of personal preference and do not recommend making this recipe vegan.

This year, I was able to make this recipe with my own small tomato harvest (a significant accomplishment!), so it felt extra special and abundant for me.

Note: I expect you to add your magic to this recipe in a way that is appropriate to your practice

Tomato Pie

For the Crust:

2 Cups All-Purpose Flour 2 ounces cheese, grated 1 tbs sugar 1/2 tsp salt, more to taste 1 cup milk 1/2 cup butter, melted

The Filling:

Fresh tomatoes, sliced thinly and lightly salted Chives, Green Onion, or very thinly sliced yellow onion Fresh Basil to Taste 1/2 Cup Mayonnaise 3/4 Cup Grated Cheese

Preheat your oven to 400°F. Combine crust ingredients (be sure not to overmix if using gluten flour) - let sit for 10 minutes. Pack into a pie plate, then add a layer of tomatoes, chives, and basil. Continue to layer tomatoes, chives, and basil until your pie plate is full. Mix together the mayonnaise and cheese and spread on top of the tomatoes. Cook for 30 minutes and serve immediately.

This recipe keeps great in the fridge and tastes even better the next day.

Notes from my second tomato pie, this time topped with some positively huge basil leaves:

The ends were perfect, but the middle was soggy, and I think that means I need to be more judicious about spreading out the sauce evenly so it’s not concentrated in the middle.

I really liked the tomato sauce, as I did a variation on Terroni’s pizza sauce and while I milled it to be slightly chunkier than they called for, it tasted good. Again, I need to be more mindful about spreading it evenly and not let it collect in the middle.

I’m also starting to experiment with longer cook times when I’m making a sauced pizza rather than a pizza with just cheese and the sauce is spooned on in the end. I think I only did about 24 minutes (rotating the pan halfway through) for the bake, and while it was good, it could use a little more time because of the aforementioned sauce.

I'm back again!! Didja miss me??? Haha...

...Of course, if you ask me the same question, the answer will always be yes.

I still had a bit of time before playing Stardew Valley with one of my regular readers from this space, so I breathed life into today's wishes for you: