Saturday, July 21, 2012

Tomato Pie

Although the original recipe called for a pie dish- I first used a spring form pan, only to realize that even that was unnecessary.  The buttermilk biscuit crust is strong enough to hold in the tomatoes, freestyle- all on its own.  Make sure you give the dough time to chill- it is much easier to work with.


for the crust:
  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup whole wheat (or whole rye) flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 6 Tablepoons chilled, unsalted butter
  • 1 cup buttermilk or keifer
for the filling: 
  • 2 pounds ripe tomatoes, cut into 1/4 inch slices
  • 2 1/2 cups shredded Cumberland cheese (or chedder)
  • 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
  • 1 scallion, thinly sliced
  • 1/4 cup cream
  • 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 Tablespoon cornmeal
Make dough for crust: Rub the the butter into the flour, salt, and powders with your fingers until it resembles a coarse meal, with some small chunks of butter.  Gently stir in the buttermilk, either with your hand or a fork.  Knead very briefly, until the dough just comes together.  Form into a ball, wrap with plastic, and chill in fridge for at least an hour

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Layer the tomato slices between a clean kitchen towel.  Let sit about 20 minutes to dry.  

Unwrap the dough and very gently roll out into a 11 inch circle.  Use flour if you need to, but keep it at a minimum.  The key is to work very quickly, and don't press to hard as you roll.  If you lift the dough often and lightly flour it, it should roll easily.    Place dough circle on a baking sheet- or in a pie dish.  Stir together vinegar, scallion, salt, and cream. Mix the cheeses together- reserving 1/4 cup for the top.

Sprinkle cornmeal on the bottom of the circle, if in a pie dish, or in a 9inch circle, if just free-form.  Sprinkle about 1/2 cup of cheese, top with about 1/3 of the tomato slices, drizzle with about 1/2 of the cream mixture, top with cheese, more tomatoes, and the rest of the cream.  Top with the rest of the cheese, the rest of the tomato slices, and then sprinkle the reserved 1/4 cup cheese on top. Top with freshly ground pepper.   If you are doing this freeform, just keep piling the filling up, making sure to leave about a 2 inch border.  

Fold the edges over the filling.  If you are not using a pie pan, make sure they are securly crimped and folded, to keep the crust from falling open and the filling leaking out.  

Bake til crust is golden and cheese is brown and bubbly- about 35 minutes.  Let cool at least an hour or two before eating.  


3 comments:

Kelsey Keener said...

yes!! Thanks Ann.. It looks sooo delicious. Can't wait to make it.

Elspeth Schulze said...

This Was DELICIOUS. at saturday's dinner. We're gonna make it in NYC and pretend you are there. We talked about making stuffed versions of you guys, for a roundtable full. But the pie will be real (just not nearly as good as it was with the real yous).

Beth Kirby | {local milk} said...

Biscuit crust wut?! I think I may have just found Patrick's new favorite food.