Tomato Pie with Blue Cheese Biscuits

It’s tomato season which means it’s time to eat cherry tomatoes like they’re candy AND it’s high time for tomato pie! My version of tomato pie is more of a tomato cobbler-  super simple, topped with buttermilk blue cheese biscuits.

Just last week my big sister Launa sent me a very urgent overnight package. Inside were vegetables fresh from her garden, lovingly washed and wrapped in in towels and bubble wrap (which made me laugh because lol green beans are fragile!).  The most beautiful of her generous offering was the golden beet, an incredible artichoke, a few curly English cucumbers, a pale mint green patty pan squash, and the most lovely little tomatoes.  I think I just described everything… it was all perfectly lovely.

The tomatoes sparked a reminder of this fine tomato pie recipe – knowing that some of you have literal bushes of cherry tomato plants that hang heavy with fruit this time of year.  My sister’s tomatoes didn’t make it to the pie. I enjoyed them straight out of the package, reaching over my shoulder for a pinch of sea salt.  But all tomatoes are delicious in a pie these days.  Pick yours, let’s pie.

I first made this recipe in 2012. More specifically, I made and photographed this tomato cobbler on the floor of my little bungalow in Venice way back when it was just me and a youthful Tron. Almost ten years later and this is still one of the most popular summer recipes on the site so I thought we give it a new attitude.

Here’s what you’ll need to make this tomato pie recipe with blue cheese biscuits:

For the biscuits:

•  All-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar and salt

•  Butter and shortening

•  Buttermilk and blue cheese

For the pie:

•  2 pounds of cherry tomatoes

•  Sliced onion and garlic

•  Olive oil and balsamic vinegar

•  Flour to thicken the pie and salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes

•  Fresh basil for serving

Start by making the blue cheese biscuits.

Work cold butter and shortening into the dry ingredients.  We’ve made biscuits so many times over the years by now you know we’re using our hands to break the fat into little pea size bits and oat flakes.

Today is extra special so we’ll add crumbled blue cheese to our biscuit dough.  For for feta if you don’t have blue.

Toss to combine.

Make a well in the center of the flour, butter, and blue cheese mixture and add most, but not all of the buttermilk.

Use a fork to toss the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, forming a shaggy dough.

Add a bit more buttermilk so the dough comes together into a moist, but not sticky dough.

It’s ok if the biscuit dough is on the wet side.  Wet is better than dry.  Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and allow it to rest in the refrigerator while you assemble the tomato filling.

As with all good savory things, this tomato pie recipe starts with onions.

Once onions are browned with olive oil to silky and deeply golden, add the garlic and balsamic vinegar to deglaze the pan.  It should smell like heaven exactly.

In a medium bowl toss together the cherry tomatoes (some of them can be cut in half), those warm garlicy onions, flour, seasoning, and fresh basil or any herbs you like.

Arrange the tomato filling in a 9×9-inch square baking pan (or a big ceramic pie dish if that’s what you have on hand), and bake the tomatoes alone to start their roast.

While the tomato pie filling has it’s first roast in the oven, roll and cut 6 hearty biscuit rounds (about 2 1/2-inches around and 3/4-inch thick).

Add the biscuit rounds to the top of the par-roasted tomatoes.

Warm biscuits over roasted tomatoes – a most perfect summer dinner. Though – add a few soft boiled eggs and this would be an incredible brunch dish.

Happy Baking! Happy Summer! These are my favorite days.

Tomato Pie with Blue Cheese Biscuits

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• Author: Joy the Baker
• Prep Time: 30 minutes
• Cook Time: 40 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
• Yield: Serves 6

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Description

A delightful summer dinner of roasted cherry tomatoes topped with blue cheese buttermilk biscuits: tomato pie, amen! 

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

For the Biscuits:

• 2 cups (254 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
• 3 tablespoon unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
• 3 tablespoons vegetable shortening, cold and cut into cubes (or substitute unsalted butter here)
• 1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup cold buttermilk

For the Filling:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 large onions, sliced thin
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar or red wine
• 2 pounds cherry tomatoes
• 1/4 cup coarsely chopped basil (or a combination of chopped fresh thyme, oregano, and parsley)
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• salt and coarsely ground black pepper

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Instructions

1. To make the biscuits, in a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.  Add cold butter and shortening.  With your fingers, quickly break up the fat into the dry ingredients.  Rub the fats into the dry ingredients until well incorporated.  Some butter pieces will be the size of small peas, other will be the size of oat flakes.  Toss in blue cheese crumbles.  Stir to incorporate.
2. Create a small well in the center of the flour mixture.  Add 1/2 cup buttermilk all at once.  With a fork, quickly bring together the wet and dry ingredients.  The dough will be rather shaggy.  Dump dough out onto a lightly floured work surface.  Knead dough about 10 times adding a bit more buttermilk as needed, bringing it together into a disk.  Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate until the filling is assembled.
3. To make the tomato filling, add olive oil and butter to a medium saute pan over medium heat.  Add sliced onions and season with salt and pepper.  Cook and brown onions, stirring occasionally, until caramelized, about 18 to 20 minutes.  Add garlic and cook for one minute more.   Remove pan from heat, add balsamic vinegar or wine and set aside.
4. In a large bowl, toss together clean cherry tomatoes (slice some of them in half), chopped basil (or whatever herbs you’re using), flour, and red pepper flakes.  Add caramelized onions and toss together until everything is lightly and evenly coated in flour.  Season with salt and pepper.
5. Place rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
6. Pour the tomato and onion filling into a square 8×8-inch or 9×9-inch baking dish.  Place in the oven and bake tomatoes filling for 15 to 18 minutes.
7. Remove the biscuit dough from the fridge.  On a lightly floured work surface, roll out biscuit dough into a 3/4 or 1-inch thickness.  Use a 1 1/2 to 2 1/2-inch round biscuit cutter to cut out biscuits.  Dip the cutter in flour should it get sticky.
8. Remove the partially cooked filling from the oven and carefully place 6-8 biscuits atop the tomato filling in the pan.  Brush biscuit tops with buttermilk and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Reshape and reroll excess biscuit dough to make extra biscuits for another time or nestle more biscuit onto the cobbler.  (The shaped biscuit dough freezes very well.)
9. Return warm filling and biscuit dough to oven and bake for 17-22 minutes, until the biscuits are golden brown and cooked through, and the tomato mixture is bubbling.
10. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 15 minutes before serving.  Tomato pie is best served warm but keeps, covered in the fridge for 2 days. 

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Photographs with my dear Jon Melendez.