Fun With Carbs

When my brother and I were little, my mother once told us that my father had a pathological hatred of tomatoes as a child. The kind of loathing that caused him to pass up not only raw tomatoes, but sauce, ketchup – and pizza.

“You wouldn’t eat PIZZA?” we asked, incredulous.

True story, apparently. But I understand now. If all he’d been exposed to were the bland, watery supermarket varieties, the tomato version of iceberg lettuce, then no wonder. But once you have an heirloom tomato, grown just feet from your house, it changes the entire landscape.

We’re pretty spoiled here in the Connecticut River Valley. While we have a (literal) embarrassment of big-box stores and chain restaurants, the region is sprinkled with small family farms. We have three little farm stands within two and a half miles of our place, and this summer we’ve really been trying to take advantage of beautiful local produce.

So in keeping with heirloom tomato season, I just made this incredible tomato pie. (Modified recipe here.) I used a store-bought pie crust, caramelized the onions first, mixed shredded mozzarella and a combination of grated Parmesan and romano and omitted the tabasco sauce in the cheese blend.

The heirlooms I got were full of moisture, too. Make sure you squeeze them well so your pie crust doesn’t get soggy.

It’s a bit like a deep dish pizza. Except way better.