I always look forward to tasting REAL tomatoes each summer – the ones that come from the local gardens instead of the “plastic” tomatoes from the store. I love the variety of colors, sizes, and tastes! Coincidentally, I stumbled upon a tomato pie recipe on Camellia’s Cottage blog and I’ve decided to give it a try.
On Saturday morning, prompted by a reminder photo shared by a good friend (Art) on Facebook, I headed downtown Knoxville to the farmers’ market in search of tomatoes. I came home with much more than that, of course, but I did manage to get some really good looking tomatoes for my pie.
I am really bad about following recipes, so I made my own version of this decadent treat. I used Toufayan wraps as the base instead of a pie crust and I brushed them with olive oil.
I mixed Greek yogurt with Avocado salad dressing instead of using Mayo and sour cream. I added about a tablespoon of fresh purple onion and bell pepper, finely chopped to the mix. I also added extra herbs from my “garden” (I do not have a particularly green thumb but I manage to keep my container herbs alive throughout the season, even if I’ve been known to kill cacti…). I really love the Mexican tarragon and the Greek oregano – they seem to have a nicer flavor than the other varieties I tried – and, of course, I cannot skip the sweet basil.
For the cheese, I grated some sharp cheddar (since I found out that they add cellulose in the pre-shredded cheese, I prefer to grate my own). I really could have used a lot more but I’m trying (and failing, and trying again) to mind my weight and my husband’s high cholesterol (no fun). However, I did add prosciutto as a decadent touch and a hint of smokiness to balance the acid/tartness of the tomatoes.
I baked the pie for about 55 minutes, checking on it from time to time. My tomatoes gave a lot of juice, which would have probably been better handled by a regular pie crust. Although, I thought about trying another version and using polenta as the base.
Side note: for some reason, spellcheck wanted to replace “polenta” with “tadpole.” I don’t recommend it :-).
Although not as great as the original recipe, my version of Sister’s Tomato Pie was very tasty indeed. Many thanks to Camellia for sharing!
Happy eating!
