Heirloom Tomato, Onion, and Cheese Pie

Now is the season of the Heirloom Tomato.  Here is a wonderful way to make use of some of this short term bounty. This pie is Summer Comfort Food at its finest!

Tomato, Onion, and Cheese Pie

Ingredients

One pastry shell - you can make your favorite recipe or you can buy pie pastry.  Don't buy the shells in the aluminum pans; upgrade to the rolled dough in the red box made by Pillsbury.  These are what I use for this sort of recipe. There are two to a box and they keep really well in your refrigerator or freezer. 

2 1/4 lbs of assorted heirloom tomatoes, thinly sliced

1 medium sweet onion chopped

1 tablespoon canola oil

1/4 cup fresh basil

1/4 cup fresh flat leaf basil

1/2 cup freshly grated Gruyere (or more if you want it really cheesy)

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano

 1/4 cup of mayonnaise (homemade really makes it delicious, if you can do it)

Techniques

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and "blind bake" the pie crust (line the crust with foil and pour in pie weights or dry beans and spread them around).  You don't want the crust to rise, you do want it cooked quite a bit so that it doesn't get soggy when the ingredients are added.  Blind bake the pie crust for 15 - 20 minutes.

Remove the cooked crust from the oven, remove the pie weights and foil and lower the oven to 350 degrees. 

Place the sliced tomatoes on paper towels and sprinkle with salt and let stand for at least ten minutes (you are drawing out excess liquid).

Chop the basil & parsley and blend - this needn't be a fine chop.

Sauté the chopped onions in the canola oil with salt and pepper to taste. Sauté for about 3 minutes to soften.

Pat the tomato slices dry

Pat the chopped onions dry

Stir together the cheeses and the mayonnaise 

Layer the sliced tomatoes and onions with the chopped herbs in the pie crust (see the pictures)

You are layering:  tomatoes, then onions, then herbs, a little salt & pepper and then, repeat.

After you have used all of the ingredients, spread the mayonnaise and cheese mixture over the top of the pie. (See picture)

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Let the top get bubbly and slightly brown.  

Serve hot.

Enjoy

This recipe was adapted from Southern Living Cookbook 2012 by Virginia Willis