My friend Carol was rummaging through her stack of old recipes and came across Tomato Pie. She said it sounded like something Galley Pirates needed. And she was right! (BTW, Happy Birthday, Carol!) I had never heard of Tomato Pie before. What a concept! With only 4 ingredients other than the pie crust it’s incredibly easy to make and perfect for a brunch buffet, side dish or vegetarian entree.

Carol generously offloaded some of her garden tomatoes to Galley Pirates. Not to worry this time of year though. Graul’s has local produce by the mountains if you don’t have friends with gardens.

Tomato Pie

Pie crust
4-6 medium tomatoes
2 cups shredded cheese
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup mayonnaise

Optional: diced onion, basil hot peppers. Parmesan for top.

This says it all…..

The key to tomato pie is to get is much moisture out of the tomatoes as possible. Slice the tomatoes in 1/4″ slices and seed them. Then place them in a colander, sprinkle with salt, and let them sweat.

While they are sweating, pre-bake the pie crust. Put your pre-made pie crust in your pie pan, poke it with a fork and bake at 360º or hotter for about 10 minutes. Keep your oven on for final baking.

Place the tomato slices on paper towel and press with additional paper towel on top to wick out the excess moisture.

Prepare the rest of the ingredients. Beat the egg and place, along with 1/2 cup mayo, in a bowl with a scant 2 cups shredded cheese. (keep a small handful to sprinkle on your baked crust.) I went with an Italian theme today using a mix that consisted of provolone, mozzarella, asiago and parmesan. You can use any variety of cheese that suits you. For additional flavor, I threw in some diced onion, basil and hot pepper from the marina garden.

Starting layering your pie. To keep the crust from becoming soggy I start first with a thin layer of cheese.

Then lay on the sliced tomatoes. On top of that spoon on 1/2 of the cheese mixture. On top of that sprinkle your optional ingredients.

Then continue on with the last layer of tomatoes.

Top with the rest of the cheese mixture and dust with parmesan.

Bake in your preheated oven for 30 minutes or until golden and puffed. My galley oven has problems getting anything “golden” so I dotted some butter on top, rotating a number of times and baked it for almost an hour.  I lit the broiler for 5 minutes or so as well. Finally, golden!

Let rest for at least 10 minutes and dig in. I was starving so it was all I could do to wait, snap a few photos and devour a piece.