No, I didn’t make three of them.  This is just the third time I’ve felt the need to post about Farmer’s Tomato Pie.  My sister, Frankie, found this recipe and shared it with us.  It’s the perfect recipe for the heat of August, when tomatoes are at their peak.  It’s not the kind of recipe you’d make in February when all you can get is the cardboard they market as tomatoes.

You can use a store-bought pie crust for this recipe.  You can buy the bag of finely shredded Italian cheeses, if you don’t want to fill your refrigerator with cheese.  But, you need to have warm from the garden tomatoes and freshly picked basil for this to live up to its mouth-watering promise.

I might not have made this recipe this year, given that we’ve been moving, but Frankie brought me all the tomatoes I needed from her own garden, and a large bouquet of basil, to boot!  It was part of an incredibly generous housewarming gift that included dried herbs from her garden, dill vinegar which she had made, and three plants, in pots that she had also made.  She hit all the things that we love in common, including a bottle of wine!  Thanks, Sis, for such a wonderful gift!

So, for those of you who may be interested, here’s the recipe:
Farmer’s Tomato Pie

30 minutes preparation
32 minutes baking
10 minutes stand time
1 piecrust
1 1/3 cups shredded Italian blend cheese (5 ? oz.)
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp. Fine dry breadcrumbs
2 lbs. Ripe tomatoes cut into wedges
1 cup Cherry tomatoes, cut in halves
1 tsp salt
1/4-1/2 cup loosely packed small basil leaves

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Pie crust
Roll out a prepared piecrust to a twelve-inch circle. Place in a 9″ quiche pan or a 9″ pie pan, and trim. If using a pie pan, crimp the edges. Line the unpricked pastry with TWO thicknesses of foil. Bake 8 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 4-5 minutes, until set and dry. Remove from the oven.
Reduce the temperature to 375 degrees.
Filling
Sprinkle 1/3 cup cheese evenly over baked shell.
Sprinkle garlic over cheese.
Sprinkle 2 tsp. Breadcrumbs over garlic and cheese
Top with 1/3 of the tomato wedges and 1/3 of the cherry tomatoes
Sprinkle 1/3 cup cheese
Sprinkle 2 tsp of the dry breadcrumbs
Top with 3 of the tomato wedges and 1/3 of the cherry tomatoes
Repeat last set of instructions once more and then sprinkle with salt.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until pastry is golden brown and tomatoes are just beginning to brown.
Remove to wire rack
Sprinkle with basil and let stand for 10 minutes