more home cooking

Summer is going to be a bit scattered blog-wise. Like take tomorrow, which is a Friday. I don't have a full post ready for Cool Stuff day! I could scurry hurry and throw something together, but a better idea I think, would be to wait until I've actually compiled enough Cool Stuff to make a coherent post. I'm going for a quality-over-quantity type of vibe. Yeah, that's the ticket!

But I have something that will make your summer happy, if you like tomatoes. It's like summer pizza. Except it's BETTER. It's a biscuit pie (there's a top crust to this as well, but I wanted you to see all the filling.) I did a post on it long ago, but this recipe is so charming, it deserves mention more than once on my blog. I should talk about it once a year, at least.

First, do yourself a huge favor and go find a copy of 'More Home Cooking' by Laurie Colwin. While you're at it, you might as well get book 1, which is called 'Home Cooking'. I own both and if every book in my house was bursting into flame, I would be reaching to save both of these amazing cookbooks-slash-food memoirs. So delightful, so fun to read, with the most accessible and happy-making recipes. And one of my favorite recipes is Laurie's Tomato Pie. She writes her recipe out longhand and it takes awhile to write down, so I'm going to be a cheater pants and just cut and paste from my first Tomato Pie post, which is an awesome read but I'm too horrified by my old photos to link to it. You can look it up in my archives if you're feeling intrepid. Year 2011. Oh, a note about the tomatoes - whatever form you use, canned or fresh - DRAIN DRAIN DRAIN. Blot them, drain them. Drain drain drain.

TOMATO PIE - from 'More Home Cooking'. 


"The pie has a double biscuit-dough crust, made by blending 2 cups flour, 1 stick butter, 4 teaspoons baking powder, and approximately 3/4 cup milk, either by hand or in a food processor. You roll out half the dough on a floured surface and line a 9-inch pie plate with it. Then you add the tomatoes. Mary makes this pie year round and used first quality canned tomatoes, but at this time of year 2 pounds peeled fresh tomatoes are fine, too. Drain well and slice thin two 28-ounce cans plum tomatoes, then lay the slices over the crust and scatter them with chopped basil, chives, or scallions, depending on their availability and your mood. Grate 1 1/2 cups sharp Cheddar and sprinkle 1 cup of it on top of the tomatoes. Then over this drizzle 1/3 cup mayonnaise that has been thinned with 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and top everything with the rest of the grated Cheddar. Roll out the remaining dough, fit it over the filling, and pinch the edges of the dough together to seal them. Cut several vents in the top crust and bake the pie at 400 degree F for about 25 minutes." (if you have a slow oven, cook 5 minutes more)


Make this pie and enjoy your summer! (P.S. the biscuit crust is seriously the easiest thing EVER. faster than fast to make, especially if you have a food processor, but it's all easy to make by hand. seriously.)