Summer Tomato Pie and Fall Apple Pie by Evan

PIE-A-DAY #77 + #78

For our last PIE-A-DAY post, Evan shares a special twofer pie slam to inspire our contestants for their big Sunday unveiling at the Third Annual Good Food Pie Contest. Good Luck and see you there!

This Pie is my salute to summer’s passing. It comes from my original Pie-a-Day Posts in 2009 and was inspired by Martha’s famous Tomato Cobbler. I was inspired to make it again by Amelia’s Pie earlier this week and the incredible assortment of baby tomatoes in the farmers market right now. There is a delicious alchemy created by the combination of tomatoes, basil and butter that is so unexpected in either a sweet or savory pie. It’s in-between. With the super sweet tomatoes popping in your mouth bathed in savory onion and basil with the richness of butter and cheese of the streusel. It’s definitely a pie fit for the season.

Keep reading for the recipe.

¼ cup olive oil

1 large onion diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 baskets assorted cherry tomatoes

1/2 cup chopped basil

Pinch of fresh ground black pepper

¼ cup flour

Roll out dough and place in pie pan, crimping or decorating the edges as you choose.

To make the tomato filling:

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook stirring occasionally, until translucent and softened Transfer to a bowl to cool slightly.

Place tomatoes in a large bowl toss with cooled onion mixture, flour, salt to taste, the basil and pepper. Place tomato mixture in pie pan and refrigerate while you prepare the topping.

Cheddar – Garlic Streusel:

1 cup flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1 garlic clove

1/3 cup cold butter

3/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Put flour, sugar and garlic in bowl of food processor with steel blade. Pulse to mix. Add the butter and cheese. Pulse several times until mixture comes together.

Heat oven to 400. Remove pie from refrigerator and top with streusel mixture. Place on lowest rack of preheated oven. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until topping is golden brown and you can see thickened tomato juices peeking through.

High Hat Apple Pie

I love the Farmers Markets this time of year. On one side of the street booths are filled with tomatoes. On the other the sporadic apple and squash is pushing its way in. So this pie is my embrace of the coming season of cooler days and family celebrations. Windrose Farm makes it easy. Each pretty basket of apple variety that’s good for pie has a little pie drawn on the label. So I just went down the row and got 3 of each pie perfect specimen.

I splurged on an all-lard crust but use your favorite

High Hat Apple Pie Recipe

14 apples of mixed variety, peeled and sliced apples

1/2 cup Brown or White Sugar

Pinch of salt

1 1/2 teaspoon Saigon cinnamon

6 tablespoons cornstarch

Preheat oven to 425º. In medium bowl, mix together apples, sugar, cinnamon and salt. Add cornstarch and stir until it melts into the juices of the apple slices.

Pour seasoned apples into dough lined pie pan. I use a 9” pyrex pan. Lay another layer of dough atop the apples. Trim and crimp the edge of the dough. Make symmetrical slits in the top crust so steam can escape.

Place pie in preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes. Check pie to see if top is browning quickly. If it is, loosely lay aluminum foil over the pie to protect the crust. Turn heat down to 375º and continue baking an additional 30-40 minutes or until apples are tender when pierced with a paring knife and the juices have thickened.