Italian Tomato Pie

This delicious-tasting Italian Tomato Pie isn’t the run-of-the-mill pizza pie you think it is. That’s right. It’s a deep-dish pie of utter deliciousness, made with juicy ripe red Roma tomatoes,  sweet yellow cocktail tomatoes,  Romano cheese, aged smoked provolone cheese, fresh organic spinach, homemade ricotta, and a perfect herb mix of fresh basil and other Italian seasonings.

I made a mean Southern Tomato Pie and decided to play around with something similar but different today by making an Italian Tomato Pie. The Saints came marching in with this delicious-tasting Italian Tomato pie recipe this afternoon. I almost devoured one-third of this excellent pie, and I am still smiling over how wonderful this Italian Tomato Pie tasted. Yes, I know…it was just that darn good!

 

I love Florida in the Spring and try to celebrate my surrounding as much as possible. Some of you are reading this up North, still shivering a bit from the weather. This is one of my favorite times of the year — it’s also when we are growing our lovely gardens here in Florida and enjoying delicious tomatoes.

I adore a perfect-tasting juicy garden tomato, and as a child was known to pick our tomatoes, rinse them under our garden hose and munch on them right on the very spot I was standing. I love that fresh tomato smell right after it’s picked – odd, maybe to you, yet so wonderful.

Fresh herbs are an essential part of my eating lifestyle. They are used in almost every recipe, so it’s no surprise that I have used several fresh herbs in this delicious, warm, and simple Italian Tomato Pie today.

Good quality ricotta cheese is extremely important to me, I have a wonderfully talented blogger friend over at Culinary Ginger that makes her own delicious homemade Ricotta cheese. Trust me. It was used today to make my ricotta cheese for the recipe below.

Below you will find a wonderfully simple-to-follow recipe. Whether you are using all home-grown and homemade ingredients or ingredients from your local market… you will fall in love with Italian Tomato Pie.

 

Italian Tomato Pie

• 1 homemade pie crust or frozen pie crust, recipe below

• 6 medium organic Roma tomatoes, sliced

• 4 yellow organic cocktail tomatoes, sliced

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt. to sweat tomatoes

• 2 cups of homemade or 1 – 15-ounce container of Ricotta cheese

• 2 cups of chopped  fresh spinach or 10 ounces of organic frozen spinach

• 1 medium sweet onion, minced

• 1 clove of garlic, minced

• 1/4 of a cup Romano cheese

• 1 egg

• 1/4 of a cup chopped fresh sweet basil

• 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano

• 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

• kosher salt, to taste

• fresh ground pepper, to taste

• 8 ounces of aged smoked provolone, freshly shredded, divided by 2

• 6 leaves of purple or green basil for garnish

 

ROSEMARY AND HERB HOMEMADE PIE CRUST

• 1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/8 teaspoon ground pepper

• 1  tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped

• 1 teaspoon dried basil

• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

• 1/2 cup butter unsalted, diced, and chilled

• 3  tablespoons ice water

• 1 teaspoon of quality olive oil

• extra all-purpose flour

 

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees

2. Combine all-purpose flour, salt, ground pepper, fresh chopped rosemary, one teaspoon of dried basil,  and 1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano in the food processor. Pulse to mix 1-2 times.

3. Add cold diced butter and pulse about 4 x or until it resembles coarse crumbs.  Add 3 tablespoons of ice water and pulse a few times or pulse until the dough forms a ball.  If your pie dough mixture is a little dry, add another tablespoon of water.

4. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before rolling.

5. Press the homemade dough ball onto a floured surface, turn in flour,  then roll to a 1/4″ inch thickness. Be sure to turn and rotate the Homemade Rosemary and Herb dough as you go, so it does not stick to the surface. Roll out the dough to a few inches larger than your pie plate.

6. Place in a pie plate and press the edges to fit. Tuck under any edges that overhang and crimp. Be sure to prick holes in the crust so that it does not shrink while baking. Brush lightly with olive oil. If needed, place it back in the refrigerator covered in plastic wrap until ready to use.

7. Lightly cover the pie dish with aluminum foil and place it in preheated oven to 450 degrees for 7 minutes.

8. Remove and place on a heat-safe area till needed.

9. Reduce oven temp to 400 degrees.

 

Italian Tomato Pie Filling Directions 

1. Place a baker’s rack over a large cookie sheet.

2. Slice 6 medium Roma tomatoes and four yellow cocktail tomatoes about 1/4 inch thick, place on baker rack over a cookie sheet, and sprinkle both sides of tomatoes with kosher salt to start to sweat them of excess juices- let them stay for about 10 minutes. If you do not have a baker’s rack, place it on a cutting board or plate and drain the juice. Flip tomatoes once during the 10 minutes of sweating.

3. In a large heavy-duty food processor, combine ricotta cheese, 2 cups of chopped fresh or organic frozen spinach, one medium minced onion, one minced clove of garlic, one egg, Romano cheese, fresh chopped basil, oregano, rosemary, kosher salt, and freshly ground pepper- run on low-speed about 20-40 seconds max.

4. Once the pie crust has completely cooled, fill the pie crust with the spinach and ricotta herb mixture from above.

5. Add 4 ounces of freshly shredded smoked provolone to add an even layer of cheese over the ricotta, spinach, and herb mixture.

6. Layer an overlapping circle of red Roma tomatoes around the outer edge of the pie, then a layer of yellow cocktail tomatoes in the middle, and lastly, red Roma tomatoes in the middle.

7. Add the last 4 ounces of smoked provolone to the top.

8. Place in a preheated 400-degree oven for 25 minutes.

9. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before slicing.

10. Garnish with fresh basil.

11. Enjoy!

 

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© Heidy L. McCallum and The McCallum’s Shamrock Patch, 2018-2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material or photos without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner are strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Heidy L. McCallum and The McCallum’s Shamrock Patch with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. You may not copy and paste recipes to share on Social Platforms.

 

 

 

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