Busy day Fish Tacos (not photographed), and a Most Righteous Tomato Pie.

Wednesday I made Tilapia Tacos, and was too busy to photograph it. I should have photographed THAT instead of the Crock Pot Surprise!  To summarize the tacos, please picture the following... 

I seasoned and broiled Tilapia  Fillets with home mixed taco seasoning (God Bless the Internet!)... made a spicy sauce with the remainder of the roasted hot peppers (from the Mango Salsa Verde I blogged about previously) with some homemade Creme Fraiche (more on the Creme Fraiche in a later blog)... served 'em up on crunchy and/or soft taco shells with split and seeded Yellow Cherry Tomatoes, chopped leftover Mango, Some shredded Napa (or Chinese) Cabbage, and shredded Taco cheese blend.  They kicked some serious *ss, although the boys were disappointed that the tacos they were promised turned out to be fish instead of ground beef or diced pork.  Owen actually liked them a lot once he tried them.  Ethan was underwhelmed, but still ate most of his fish. Success all around.  Wheee! 

This brings us to Thursday and the Tomato Pie I teased just above.

I cannot lay claim to this recipe.  I recently heard that to consider a recipe yours in the publishing world, you have to make at least three substantial changes, or omissions that change the character of the dish from the one you are inspired by.  Changing the amount, or dropping one garnishing ingedient doesn't change the overall character of this dish.  I had a counter-full of good ripe Beefsteak Tomatoes from the CSA and was getting tired of BLTs!  I found a recipe from About.com's Linda Larson, and made only a few changes due to availability and/or budgetary 

concerns.  I started with 4 tomatoes: 3 Heirloom and One Beefsteak... mainly because I didn't have 4 heirloom, Gosh are they tasty!  At this point I set my oven to 375 degrees. 

I sliced the tomatoes as you can see, sprinkled them with kosher salt, and placed them on paper towels to sweat for about ten minutes.  I will note here that this was not enough for these particular tomatoes.  the pie had a lot of extra liquid, although I was able to mop that up to no real detriment to the pie.

Look how dense the Heirloom Tomatoes are compared to the Beefsteak on the right.

My Mother always made her own crust... it wasn't that much work, was flaky rich and delicious, and was just plain cheaper. To my Mother's shame, I hung my head low as I rolled out Pillsbury Pie Dough into a greased 9" pan.  I would also like to say that I chose to leave the dough in it's rustic, untrimmed state as an aesthetic decision and a tribute to the natural state of the tomatoes, but the sad truth is I really just didn't want to deal with trimming and shaping it.

I sprinkled 3 tablespoons grated parmigiana cheese on the crust, and piled on the Love Apples!  I filled it past the top a little.

In a large bowl I mixed 3/4 cup light Mayonnaise, 3/4 cup shredded Taco Blend (you know... left over from the fish tacos? yeah... we're on a budget, waste not want not.). You could use 1 1/2 cups cheddar  like the original recipe called for... or not, we didn't miss it.

I Add 1/2 cup grated parmigiana, You want to add 20 chopped or chiffonaded (Love that word) basil leaves... or you could use 5 chopped almost-still-fresh basil leaves and a teaspoon dried basil like I did.

The original recipe calls for green onions but I omitted them for the obvious reason, and didn't want to go in the direction of the sweet onions I DID have in the kitchen. I mixed well and spread on top of the tomatoes... in my excitement I forgot to photograph that, so right back to the beauty shot of the beautiful tomato pie in all it's splendor, after baking at 375 for almost 40 minutes.  When the top is fully browned and the tomatoes are a-bubbling, it's done.

Notice how the pie dough in it's rustic, untrimmed state serves to pay homage to the natural state of the tomatoes.

This pie is absolutely delicious.  We had it fresh from the oven with some oven baked chicken breasts and a steamed broccoli, cauliflower blend... AND for breakfast the next morning, I had mine cold and Erika heated hers in the microwave. I come from tomato growing and canning people and I never heard of this till now.  Next time I will exert a little effort by blanching, peeling, dicing, and seeding the tomatoes, and by making a fresh homemade crust.  I might even trim it!