Tomato Pie has fresh garden tomatoes, onions, basil, and a creamy, zesty cheddar cheese topping. It’s ridiculously good!
Every summer, we anxiously wait for our garden tomatoes to ripen – so we can make this incredible Tomato Pie. We’ve been making this pie for at least ten years now, and it’s a recipe we’ve never tired of making, or eating.
This delicious, savory Tomato Pie combines fresh tomatoes, basil and sweet onions in a pie crust with a zesty topping of sharp cheddar cheese, mayonnaise and a little bit of hot sauce. This Tomato Pie is so delicious – it’s almost addictive, and Jack and I often fight over who gets to eat the last piece of pie!
How do you make Tomato Pie?
Tomato Pie is actually quite easy to make. You’ll blind bake a pie crust (also known as pre-baking a pie crust), then fill it with chopped Vidalia onions, diced and drained tomatoes, and fresh chopped basil.
Then, stir together shredded cheddar cheese, mayonnaise, and a dash of hot sauce. The hot sauce adds a wonderful zesty flavor and also cuts the richness of the cheese and mayonnaise topping. (You can leave the hot sauce out, be we highly recommend it!)
Next, spread the cheese-mayo mixture on top of the tomatoes and bake until bubbly and golden brown on top. The aromas filling the house as it bakes in the oven are amazing!
Remove your Tomato Pie from the oven and allow it to set up for ten to fifteen minutes or so before slicing and serving.
One very important step!
Before you head off into the kitchen to make this Tomato Pie, I do want to note that there is one very important step you need to do when making this recipe. You MUST remove as much liquid as possible from the tomatoes before baking. Too much juice – and your pie will end up soggy.
But not to worry – we share our easy trick with you in the recipe: After you’ve diced the tomatoes, place them in a sieve or strainer over a bowl and sprinkle the tomatoes with some salt. Allow the tomatoes to sit for several hours (overnight is even better) stirring occasionally and pressing down on the tomatoes with a large spoon. You’ll be amazed at how much liquid drains out of the tomatoes!
This step requires a longer lead time than just squeezing the tomatoes to remove their juices, but the end result is a much better Tomato Pie – so it’s worth the extra time.
What kind of tomatoes should I use to make Tomato Pie?
We recommend using larger tomatoes such as Beef Steak or Big Boy – or any other larger tomato that is mostly flesh and has fewer seeds. Roma tomatoes are OK (but not our first choice) and we would generally avoid using smaller grape or cherry tomatoes for this Tomato Pie recipe. (If you need a good recipe to use up the smaller tomatoes from your garden, make this recipe instead!)
One last note: There are many variations of tomato pie recipes – some adding a Ritz cracker topping – but we like this version the best. Our recipe today is adapted from Simply Recipes.
You may like these other Tomato recipes:
- 30+ Recipes for your Garden Tomatoes
- Tomato Soup
- Pappa al Pomodoro (Bread and Tomato Soup)
- Italian Tomato Sauce
- Homemade Tomato Juice
Tomato Pie
Tomato Pie has fresh garden tomatoes, onions, basil, and a creamy, zesty cheddar cheese topping. It’s ridiculously good!
- Prep Time: 6 hours
- Cook Time: 35 mins
- Total Time: 6 hours 35 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: entree
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
4–5 fresh tomatoes, cut in half horizontally and squeezed to remove seeds and excess juices, and chopped into 1-inch pieces (yield approximately 3 cups)
A generous pinch of kosher salt
1 partially-baked 9-inch pie crust (see instructions here) – baked for about 8-minutes in a 450 degree F. oven
1/2 cup finely diced sweet Vidalia onion (about 1/2 a medium onion)
1/4 cup finely sliced basil (8 leaves)
2 cups grated sharp white cheddar cheese (or other cheeses of your choice)
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Cholula Hot Sauce (or other hot sauce of your choice – adjust amount according to your tastes)
Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- About 4-6 hours before baking (or ideally the night before), place the diced tomatoes in a sieve or strainer over a bowl and sprinkle generously with the salt. Stir to combine. Allow the tomatoes to drain off their liquid, stirring occasionally and gently pressing down on the tomatoes (use a large spoon or a small flat bowl to press the tomatoes against the sieve), until the tomatoes are very well drained. Blot with a paper towel if necessary to remove extra moisture.
- While the tomatoes are draining, pre-bake your pie crust. (See instructions here)
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Spread the diced onion in the bottom of the pie crust. Spread the well-drained tomatoes over the onions, then sprinkle the basil over the tomatoes.
- In a medium bowl, combine the grated cheese, mayonnaise, hot sauce and a generous grind of black pepper. Mix to combine (the mixture will be very thick). Spread the cheese mixture over the tomatoes in the pie plate.
- Bake in the oven until golden brown and bubbly – approximately 25-35 minutes.
- Let sit for 10-15 minutes to firm up before serving.
This recipe originally appeared on A Family Feast in September 2013. We’ve updated the images and post.
Loved this recipe and will definitely make it again. I found the mayo a little heavy-handed though. I’ll try it next time with only a 1/2 cup.
Thanks M
Everyone LOVED this tomato pie, even those that don’t like tomatos. I absolutely love everything about it, tomato flavor, delicious melted cheese, onions and flaky crust, mmmmmm. Will make this many times in the future
Thanks Wendy!
Super yummy
Thanks Wesley!
Hi Martha
Thanks for reminding me to make this delicious recipe again…a Southern favorite. The tip on getting moisture out of the tomatoes is a step you don’t want to skip. It makes such a difference.
As always, thanks for sharing.
Linda
You’re very welcome Linda! We’re enjoying those summer garden tomatoes while we still can! 🙂
Absolutely delicious! Can this be frozen? If so, should I freeze after cooking or before?
I wouldn’t recommend freezing this Paula…I just don’t think the texture will be the same once it is thawed. But if you try it anyway – please let us know how it comes out!
I love this on the ceramic cooker outside. I add Mushrooms and Bacon to my pies just to add flavor.
Great suggestions George! Sounds delicious!
I made the tomato pie this week, and I have to say I looked at some other recipes for tomato pie but yours seemed to make the most sense as far as squeezing the tomatoes and partially cooking the crust, so I followed it . only difference was that I added Greek yogurt to the mayo. I have never tasted tomato pie before and I absolutely love it. I have to say that if I followed the other recipes, I may not have been so thrilled, so thanks for taking the time to explain things so nicely!
Thank you Carol! We’ve made this a few times before publishing and wanted to share our tips and tricks so it turned out the best possible! We’re glad you enjoyed the recipe and your Greek yogurt swap sounds healthier and delicious! Thank you for writing to us!
I think I need to stock up on some tomatoes so I can make this!
Hope you enjoy it as much as we do Chung-Ah!
I have a lot of tomatoes starting to ripen and going to make this recipe.. Can it be made ahead of time and reheated. Thanks for sharing.
Yes it can! I’d suggest bringing it back up to room temperature before baking. Hope you enjoy the recipe!
Thanks for the reply and the tip. I
I’ve never had Tomato Pie. It sure looks delicious!
Thanks Kathy – hope you enjoy it if you try making it!
Looks A-MAZE-ZING!!!!!! I love a good tomato pie with a big green salad for dinner!! Thanks for the tip on tomatoes, I do this with cucumber for tzatziki but never thought about it for ‘maters too!!!!
Thanks Marcy! And I never thought about using the same technique for cucumbers…! Thank YOU for sharing that with us! Martha