Having grown up in Southern California, my family grew tomatoes year around. It wasn’t uncommon to have tomatoes still ripening on our backyard vines at Christmas time. Now that we live in the South where tomato pie is a staple during the summer, I cannot understand why this spectacular dish wasn’t on our food radar when I was growing up. (We had multiple varieties of its cousin, pizza, and to be fair, there’s a version of tomato pie common in the Northeast that’s much like an upside-down margharita pizza, but it’s just not the same thing as a Southern tomato pie.)
Download Outrageous Tomato Pie Recipe
Ask any longtime Southerner and they will have fond memories of tomato pie. From simple to extravagant, tomato pie brings back memories of summers when the vines were drooping with huge, red tomatoes, ripe for the picking. It’s hot and humid in the South, which means tomato season can be tricky. Gardeners here know that when it’s too wet, the tomato skins will crack and they must be picked before they rot. If it’s too humid, the tomatoes can get moldy hanging right there on the vine, so they’re often picked early and window ripened. (Fried green tomatoes came from this—as gardeners not wanting to waste their green tomatoes began coating and frying like they did okra.)
Tomato lovers that we are, and since we can’t grow tomatoes in North Carolina past about September, BassMan and I spend what it takes to get good, hothouse tomatoes all year around. Recently I’ve been buying lovely trays of tomatoes on the vine at Costco. We often have roasted tomatoes, BLTs, and diced tomatoes in our salads and on our tacos just like in California. With more than a dozen at the peak of ripeness sitting on my counter yesterday, I decided to make tomato pie—even though it wasn’t summer.
The first time I had tomato pie was in a little Southern restaurant in Hilton Head shortly after moving to North Carolina ten years ago. I’ve had it at several places since then, but I always return in my mind to that first slice of tomato heaven at Hilton Head’s Poseidon Coastal Cuisine. I hear Vivian Howard makes a superb tomato pie at her Chef and the Farmer restaurant in Kinston, NC, but I haven’t tasted that one personally.
Tomato pies in the Northeast use a traditional bread crust, while in the South it’s a pastry crust. In the North, the pies are sauced with tomato gravy (think marinara), while in the South the tomatoes are layered with cheesy mayonnaise. Both styles can include meat—in the South where pork is king, bacon is the meat of choice.
My tomato pie is a mash-up of the Southern and the Northeastern tomato pies. I’ve begun with a bread crust, then filled it with roasted tomatoes, sweet peppers, onions and cheese (omitting the mayo). On top of that I’ve added caramelized onions for added decadence. I made this last night and BassMan and I hate half the pie.
If you decide to make my Outrageous Tomato Pie, drop me a comment with some pictures. I’d love to hear about your results.
Download Outrageous Tomato Pie Recipe