How To Make Easy Tomato Pie

When I was growing up, I was convinced I hated mayo (and sour cream, and cream cheese, and cottage cheese, for that matter). I scrunched my nose up at my mom when she mixed it into her tuna salad, and scooched my seat away from my dad if he ordered the creamy coleslaw side at a restaurant. My friends that electively opted to add mayo to their Subway sandwiches? I was utterly repulsed.

So you can imagine my surprise when I discovered that the secret to my mom’s famous tomato pie — a staple in our household every summer — was a generous dollop of good old-fashioned mayonnaise. It was quite a dilemma: admit that okay, maybe I’d never really given the condiment a chance and had unfairly ruled it out of my diet, or stick to my story and give up the pie? The pie won (as it often does), and acted as my gateway to mayo, which now has a permanent place in my fridge.

With some assistance from two types of cheeses, lots of salt and pepper, and a spoonful of Dijon, mayo transforms into a decadent tomato pie topper that serves as the salty, savory counterpart to stewy, sweet summer tomatoes. Consider that this is all set inside a buttery, flaky pie crust, and I don’t think I have to tell you this is a must-make before summer ends.

Ripe summer tomatoes are naturally very juicy, making them great candidates for tomato sauce but not so ideal for a pie. But after making many tomato pies, we’ve come up with the very best ways to combat the moisture and prevent a soggy crust, leaving you with a sliceable summer pie packed with sweet tomato flavor.

1. Par-bake the crust and the tomatoes. If you’re a longtime Kitchn reader, you likely know the benefits of par-baking (or blind baking) a pie crust. It’s a technique often used with custard pies to keep the crust from getting soggy, and the same reasoning applies for tomato pie. You want the crust to be almost fully baked when you add the tomatoes, as they will release moisture onto the crust as they cook. For the crispiest, sturdiest crust, bake it in a hot oven on the lowest rack to ensure the heat hits the bottom and gets it nice and golden. Let it cool completely before adding the filling.

Our second, slightly less traditional step to prevent a soggy bottom crust is drying out the tomatoes in the oven before piling them in. While many recipes call for salting the tomatoes to release their moisture, I find this doesn’t do enough to prevent excess moisture. Tossing them in the oven until wrinkly and dry is a far superior method, and it also concentrates the sweet tomato flavor, making the resulting pie that much tastier. It doesn’t actually take any more time — you’ll bake the tomatoes as the crust par-bakes. Drying them out also means you can pretty much use any tomato variety you please — I like pretty heirlooms, but romas and beefsteak are also great and have less moisture to begin with.

2. Insulate the crust with a layer of cheese. For extra insurance, we sprinkled some cheese onto the crust as it par-bakes, which acts as a barrier between the tomatoes and the crust. We’ve also had success brushing an egg white onto pie crust, which will also work here, but hey — who doesn’t love an extra surprise layer of cheese in their pie?

3. Let the pie sit before serving. This might be the most crucial step of them all. You’ve par-baked your crust, insulated it with cheese, and dried out your tomatoes. But right when your pie comes out of the oven, the stewy tomatoes are bubbling and the pie is at peak-juiciness. Letting it sit for at least 20 minutes gives the pie a chance to cool off and set up a bit, making for cleaner slices when you go to dig in.

Starting with store-bought pie dough cuts down on prep time significantly. While the crust par-bakes, you can mix up the cheesy mayo topper (just four ingredients!) so you lose no time at all. Don’t worry about chopping any herbs — simply tear the fresh basil leaves directly on top of the tomatoes. Mix up a simple green salad as the pie bakes, and you’ll have the ultimate end-of-summer meal on the table in no time.

If you want to get started ahead of time, the pie shell can be blind-baked up to two days in advance. Loosely wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.