The Whole Tomato Pie

There's a restaurant nearby that opened recently that I've been dying to try. It's called Tomato Pie Café. People have been raving about it. At a recent trip to a local market, I happened upon some end-of-season roma tomatoes, so I decided to make my own tomato pie to tide me over until I get a chance to try theirs.

After doing some research, I found two recipes I really liked. One is from Simply Recipes, and the other is from vanilla sugar blog. I like different things about each of them, so I decided to combine them. 

Since it's fall now and I feel less like having a summery tomato pie, I used caramelized onions, removed the basil, sliced the tomatoes and sweetened them with a little sugar, and finished it off with a creamy swiss cheese topping. 

The caramelized onions make the dish, in my opinion, and it got me thinking . . .

I need to try this with apples and cheddar!

Print recipe

Tomato Pie

Adapted from recipes by Simply Recipes and vanilla sugar blog

Weight Watchers points+: 10 (7 using light mayonnaise)

Ingredients

1 9-inch pie shell (homemade or store bought)

5-6 roma or plum tomatoes

1 large sweet onion

1 tsp. olive oil

1/2 tsp. butter

sprinkling of sugar

1 c. shredded swiss or gruyère cheese

3/4 c. mayonnaise

1 tsp. hot sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake pie shell until it's lightly golden. If it's store bought, 8 - 10 minutes. For homemade, bake longer. Do not overcook, because it will bake more when it's filled. Let cool.

Meanwhile, slice onions by cutting the onion in half, and then cutting them along the grain. Heat the olive oil and butter on medium to medium low. When the butter is melted, add the onions. Sauté, stirring frequently while scraping the bottom, for 30 minutes or until they turn a deep brown color (they will smell fantastic!). If they get too dry, add a little water occasionally.


While the onions are cooking, slice the tomatoes. Slice them thicker than you would for a sandwich, about 1/4 to 1/2 inch. You want them to be on the dry side, so soak up any excess liquid with a paper towel.


Next, combine the cheese, hot sauce, and mayonnaise. I like to stick close to whole ingredients, but you can use a light mayo if you choose.


To assemble, first add the caramelized onions layer to the bottom. Then add the tomatoes, layering them to fill the shell. Lightly sprinkle the sugar over the tomatoes as you add them to decrease the acidity. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Last, spread the cheese mixture over the top, covering the tomatoes. Bake for about 25 - 35 minutes or until cheese is browned.


Enjoy!