Tonight's experiment

Mom made this tomato pie tonight.  It was AH.MAZ.ING.  Sorry, you cavemen-- this is a meatless supper.  But you don't need meat.  Have a nice salad with it.... with some ranch  (I will add Mom's recipe for Ranch dressing from scratch later.)

Tomato Pie

4 large tomatoes, peeled and chopped
10 Fresh large basil leaves chopped
1/4 cup green onions finely chopped
1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
salt and pepper
1 pre-baked deep dish pie shell


OK. Plan ahead.  You need to make a pie shell and bake it.  We did this yesterday.  Be sure you use a deep dish pie plate.

It says to peel the tomaotes, but we did not.  It was fine without being peeled.  We cut them into about 3/4 inch chunks.  Put the tomatoes into a large colander.  Sprinkle with salt, and let sit for at least 30 minutes.  We let them sit about 3 hours, and still got some liquid running out of the filling... see picture above.  The point is to drain as much liquid from the tomatoes as possible, without mashing them or anything.

OK.  Enough planning ahead......Now it is time to fix supper.  Mix the tomatoes with the chopped onions and basil. Salt and pepper according to how you like it.  Where we live, there is no source for fresh basil, so we used a palmful of dried basil leaves.  Must have worked OK since this was AH.MAZ.ING. Oh, wait, I said that already.

Mix grated cheeses, mayonnaise and sour cream.

Spread the tomatoes and onion mixture in the bottom of your pie shell.  Spread cheese mixture on top.  Be sure to keep the mixture INSIDE the pie shell so it does not melt and run all over your oven.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.  (It took ours about 40, so check it at 30, then keep checking it until it is done.)
  It should be lightly browned on top and bubbly.

Let sit for about 5 minutes before you rip into it.  Mom made us cut it into pie shaped wedges and eat it "civilized."  You don't have to do that if you don't want to.  You can just scoop it out and eat it.  I won't tell Mom.