Tomato Pie With A Surprise

As most of you who read me semi regularly know, I live in the south.  And because I live here there are a couple of things we eat regularly; tomatoes and pimento cheese. I am pretty sure if I did not eat/love them I would have to surrender my southern card and give up okra, sweet tea and cornbread for life. 

A pimento cheese sandwich on white bread with a thick slice of sun ripened tomato is delicious. so try to imagine a dinner meal with the same deliciousness baked in a pie shell___Nirvana!

 

This is going to be a how to rather than a recipe because there are several ways to go about it.

1 pie crust (pre-baked to a very light brown. Be sure to poke holes with a fork over the bottom before baking. If you have a great pie crust recipe*, make it.  Or it you had rather, just buy one already made. Either the one in the aluminum pan or the Pillsbury type that you put into your own pie plate works )

4 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and blotted dry, then blotted dry again (and even a third time if they are still wet)

 2 cups(ish) pimento cheese . You can purchase your pimento cheese but make sure it is a drier variety. Mrs. Strattons absolutely will not work. Palmetto might, but better yet buy it from a deli  or sandwich shop. If you have a Newk's near you, theirs would work very well. But  it is very quick and easy to make. I did mince a little red onion and added it to the pimento cheese just for a little more flavor.

Pre bake the pie crust and let it cool. Arrange the dried tomato slices over the bottom of the crust, stacking them no more than 2 slices high. Dollop the pimento cheese over the tomatoes then spread gently so no tomato bits are showing and the cheese mix is touching the edges of the pie crust.

Pop it into a 350 degree oven and bake for about 30 minutes Remove from the oven and let it cool until it can be easily sliced. 

This, with some chopped romaine and a light oil and vinegar dressing was the perfect summer meal

It was so good. The only change I would make to this would be to have some fresh basil "ribbons" on each slice.

This would work for a vegetarian meal and with slight alterations using vegetable shortening for the crust,  vegan cheese, and veggie mayonnaise could easily be made vegan.

*Pie Crust

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup butter

1/3 cp lard

5-7 tablespoons cold water (I live in a very humid summertime climate so I start with 5 and add more drops at a time as needed)

Mix the salt and flour, cut the cold butter into small slices, cut the lard into small bits. Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut the fats into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal (Work fast so the butter will not melt) Add the cold water (I use ice in the water to keep it super chilled) and work it into the mix until the dough is sm both and pliable, being careful not to overwork it. Split it into half and make two balls. On a floured surface roll it out into about a 10 inch circle. (I did not have quite half the dough when I rolled mine out, so I did not have enough of an edge to make the really pretty fluted edge. We lived!