Introduction

This recipe shouldn’t work. I don’t know why I even tried it. Tomatoes have way too much water. Tomato pie recipes always par-bake the pie crust. You can’t par-bake a galette. Yes, I drew out water from half of the tomatoes by pre-roasting them and I drew water out from the other half with salt and sugar and a salad spinner. Still, I wasn’t confident. When I folded the raw dough around that mass of tomato-onion-mayo-cheese goodness, it looked like a volcano that was surely going to erupt with molten tomato goo all over the sheet pan. But it didn’t. It worked beautifully. Not only did it not erupt, I was able to (carefully) slice the galette and (carefully) transfer full pieces to the plate. Yeah, I was a happy camper! I played around with the technique a bit more, before publishing for you all.

By the way, if you haven’t seen it, I recommend you look at my post covering my Savory Galette Mother Dish Technique. There’s a lot more seasonal vegetable opportunities once you get the hang of savory galettes.

Back to the Southern Tomato Galette. This recipe is a labor of love. Much of the inspiration goes to Vivian Howard’s recipe in Deep Run Roots. Her recipe can also be found on the website of her A Chef’s Life TV show. Her recipe takes extra time to pre-roast half of the tomatoes. It also uses fully caramelized onions. Both of these touches are explained later. They take extra time, but the concentrated flavor is so worth the effort.

Before I go on to explain the components of the recipe, let me state that there is no best tomato pie recipe. Certainly, I’ve had tomato pies that I thought were better or worse than others. But, there are many examples that are just as good as anyone’s “best” tomato pie. They are just as good in different ways. So, I’ll describe some options along the way. If you want to veer in a different direction, please do.

Pie Dough

Most pie dough recipes require 2 hours of chilling in the fridge before they can be rolled out. So, think ahead, unless you want to tack another 2 hours to the time for this recipe. I like to have pie dough in the freezer. I move it to the fridge the evening before I plan on using it. This is the recipe I use. I took J Kenji Alt-Lopez’s easy pie dough recipe and technique, and made it more savory pie friendly by removing the sugar an swapping half of the all-purpose flour for whole wheat. If you’ve not tried this technique (which blitzes the butter and flour together in a food processor in two separate steps), I recommend giving it a try. For me it’s fast and fool-proof. But, if you have your favorite pie dough recipe, you can stick with it. And, yes, store bought pre-rolled dough for deep dish pies is certainly an option.

Caramelized Onions

This recipe is all about tomatoes, so why aren’t we talking about tomatoes yet? It’s all about timing. If you are going to pull off this recipe in less than 2 hours, besides having pie dough ready to roll, you need to either have your caramelized onions prepared ahead of time, or you need to get them started first thing with this recipe. Know that I’m not talking about onions that are sautéed on high heat until they get brown around the edges. I’m talking about fully reduced, caramelized onions which take 40 minutes or more. The recipe will describe caramelizing a single large (12-16 oz) onion using a 1 quart stock pot. This does indeed work. But it’s not much harder to caramelize 5 pounds of onions in a 5 quart stock pot. So, a great idea is to always make a whole bunch of caramelized onions whenever you make them, and freeze the leftovers for quick use in future cooking adventures. If you choose to make the caramelized onions simultaneously with the other recipe preparations, it’s possible, but you have to be a good multi-tasker.

The Tomatoes

Finally, we’re talking about the tomatoes. If you’re going to put forth the effort to make tomato pie of any sort, make sure you are using great tomatoes. This won’t be worth the effort if you are starting with the standard grocery varieties that are bred for shelf life and ease of shipping. You want real tomatoes for this. The best source is your own garden. But for those who don’t grow their own, a local farmers’ market will certainly have you covered.

To peel, or not to peel? Some tomato pie recipes call for peeling the tomatoes. The first tomato pie recipe I tried, years ago, I found out why. The recipe specified using slices of tomatoes. When it came time to eat that pie, I found that slicing the tomatoes created circular ribbons of tomato skin, which were definitely detectable and not so pleasant. I’ve never found this to be an issue when the tomatoes are chopped instead of sliced. I’m still not willing to peel tomatoes for a tomato pie. The only reason to slice is for presentation. If you want to use slices, simply score the edges of each slice in several places so the skin isn’t a single, circular ribbon.  

Roasted Tomatoes

Traditionally, Southern tomato pies use raw fresh tomatoes. The idea to pre-roast some of the tomatoes comes from Vivian Howard’s recipe in Deep Run Roots. The recipe can also be found on the website of her A Chef’s Life TV show. Pre-roasting the tomatoes reduces their water content, concentrates their flavor, and transforms their flavor adding richness. You also have the option of slicing the tomatoes for roasting, instead of chopping them. It’s a little more effort, and the presentation is a little nicer. I include some photos below, to show the difference. I lean toward saving the effort, and simply chop all of the tomatoes.

Fresh Tomatoes

Heat reduces the water content of the pre-roasted tomatoes. We need a way to do the same for the fresh tomatoes. There’s a kitchen term for this, disgorging. Yeah, I know. That sounds so appetizing. I prefer the term I learned in high school biology. Osmosis. I’ve also heard this process called weeping. That’s much better than disgorging! Toss the cut tomatoes with a bit of salt and sugar and let them sit in a colander. If you have a salad spinner, you can go a step further and give them a spin after osmosis has done all it can. That’s a trick I learned from Ashley Christensen’s Poole’s Diner cookbook.

Mayo and Cheese

If there’s one ingredient that sets Southern tomato pies apart from all the other tomato tart options out there, it’s a copious amount of mayonnaise. It’s the defining ingredient! Duke’s is the mayo of choice in the South.

And cheese. Southern tomato pies should have plenty of cheese. Reviewing tomato pie recipes in my cookbook collection and across the web, cheddar is the most common cheese to use. But it’s not my favorite. I think it dominates the tomato flavor. I like a nice flavorful cheese, but one that compliments the tomatoes instead of dominating them. My favorite is a cheese that is local to me, Hickory Grove from Chapel Hill Creamery. It’s a pretty unique cheese without a direct substitute. If I were to select a cheese from the grocery, I’d probably reach for gruyere, a young asiago or a fontina. Whichever cheese you use, it’s worth grating it yourself. Pre-grated cheese is coated with anti-caking agents, to prevent clumping in the bag. Those anti-caking agents also interfere with how the cheese melts.

Herbs and Seasonings

Here you can really make your tomato your own. The secret ingredient. The finishing embellishment. Ashley Christensen adds a tablespoon each of Dijon mustard and horseradish. Some people add bacon or even prosciutto. Texas Pete (born and made in North Carolina!) or other hot sauce can add a little zing. And herbs. Basil is the single most popular herb to use. And why not, it’s the go-to pairing for summertime heirloom tomatoes. But, being the go-to pairing, I get plenty of it in other dishes during the summer. Thyme is also popular, and I can see an argument for oregano, tarragon, or parsley. But I go with rosemary. It works really well, and it’s a bit unique. But you do you. Make your tomato pie (galette) your tomato pie (galette).