Hello to all you foodies out there in the world, its MadJon
and I hope this article finds you all enjoying your summer with family and
friends. I’m here today to talk about a
great Southern Dish called a Southern Tomato Pie. There are actually two Southern Tomato Pies,
one is a dessert and the other tastes very similar to a deep dish Pizza, which
by the way, gets its origin from Italian Americans in the late 19th
century. These two different types of
Tomato Pies were made by chefs of Southern plantation kitchens, near as I can
tell. The green Tomato Pie is from the
1940’s and is made with green tomatoes, sugar, butter, apple spices, and taste
like a real apple pie. After all, you
know that a tomato is considered in the fruit family because it carries its
seeds on the inside of the fruit and it is not a root because it grows on a
plant like a tree. So does all that make
sense to you? I’m still confused with
that definition. You know my father
never ever mentioned a Tomato Pie, and he was a Southern Mountain Man from
Spring City, Tennessee and cooked a few dishes in our kitchen when I was a kid. My mom was from the North and she came to the
table with dishes from my grandfather who was a Chef and cooked a few Italian
dishes in his lifetime. So it was always
a war at our house in the kitchen with food from the North and the South. We were never bored when it came to
foods. Any who, what’s nice about the
Tomato Pie is you can freeze a few pies though the summer and cook them in the
winter, so you still enjoy the freshness of this pie. It is very easy to prepare and also easy to
impress your friends with a meal all in one pie. It contains the four foods group’s which are
bread, meat, dairy, and vegetables or should I say fruit. You layer it like lasagna in a pie pan and
use a prepared pie crust and it has my favorite fresh herb, Basil, to give it
that finished taste. Am going to be
passing on to you three nice Tomato recipes for you try before the summers end
and winter sets in on us again. These recipes will make your tongue want to
lick your belly. Remember, MadJon is my
name and cooking is my game. Bon’a
Y’all.
Tomato Pie
I prepared 9” deep dish Pie crust
Cook pie crust in a pre-heated oven set at 400 degrees for
10 minutes and remove from oven to cool. Please don’t put your crust into the
oven until it reaches the temperature of 400 degrees so your crust won’t cook
too fast and remember to prick your pie crust with a fork so it doesn't bubble
while cooking.
4 sliced Red Tomatoes-placed in a calendar, dusted with salt
and black pepper
6 large Basil leaves, chopped
1 onion, cut in rings
½ cup mayo
1 ½ cups shredded Italian Cheeses
½ cup shredded Parmesan Cheese
6 slices cooked Bacon
Mix the mayo with the chopped basil. Layer the tomatoes, onions and cooked bacon
in the bottom of the pie crust. Dust
with salt and pepper. Spread the mayo
and basil mix on top of the layers. Sprinkle
the Italian cheese and parmesan cheese on top of the tomatoes and onions. Bake uncovered at 400 degrees in a pre-heated
oven for about 35 minutes or until the cheeses are nice and melted. Bon’a Y’all.
Hope you enjoy this dish and give a try you may be surprised. Come like my fan page on that thing called Face Book, Cooking With MadJon & Friends or jopin up with me on twitter and just about any social
media that I can keep up with. Happy Trails to you until we meet again.
