Before moving to Georgia, tomato pie meant a pie filled with green tomatoes that had a similar taste as apple pie (recipe to follow in a later post). I discovered a savory ripe tomato pie at a local restaurant our first summer here. However, the restaurant went out of business and I almost forgot about the tomato pie. Several years later I saw it on the menu if the Tomato Shed near Charleston, South Carolina and I ordered it. It was there that my affinity for these fresh, ripe tomato pies would take hold.
I was the next summer that a request from a friend prompted me to begin making my own tomato pies.
I now make tomato pie a couple of different ways. One is a traditional pie crust and the other is a biscuit based tart. Today, I am sharing a cream cheese pie crust tomato pie.
Despite many variations, most tomato pies seem to have a few key ingredients: tomatoes, cheddar cheese, and mayonnaise. Mayo? Yes…it is the South.
While a whole pie looks okay, it is not a very pretty pie once sliced. It is a good thing that a pie doesn’t have to look pretty to taste great 🙂
The biggest challenge of making a fresh tomato pie is all the moisture in the tomatoes. To keep down the amount of moisture the cooking tomatoes release remove most of the seeds from the tomato slices. Then, place the sliced tomatoes on a cooling rack lined baking sheet and sprinkle with some Kosher salt to pull some of the remaining moisture from the slices while you prepare the rest of the pie. The end result is worth the little extra effort.