Tomato Pie with Creamy Ricotta and Goat Cheese

I know what your thinking, what the heck is a tomato pie and why would I want to eat that? Or maybe you like to brave into the world of savory baked goods, and a tomato pie makes perfect sense to you. Either way tomato pie is a recipe you don’t want to miss out on. It’s everything you love about summer with fresh juicy tomatoes, wrapped in a comfort food crust of puff pastry and creamy cheese.

There are so many good reasons to give this tomato pie a try.

First, tomato pie is the perfect transitional season dish.

I know this sounds odd, but here in the midwest as the days start to shorten and the temperatures are finally starting to cool, we enter this sweet transition between fall and summer. It’s a great time for cooking and baking.  The cool evenings have us craving comfort food, and the gardens are bursting with produce.

The tomatoes and herbs I used are fresh from my kitchen garden. But even if you don’t have a stash of fresh tomatoes of your own, make this pie with the grocery store variety and you still won’t be disappointed.

Also, it’s incredibly easy to make.

I whipped this recipe up on a weeknight when I was looking for a use for the bowls of tomatoes that have colonized my kitchen counter. (Note to self, next time we try to sell our home do not try to do so when the garden is creating more produce than our countertops can handle). This was a great use for tomatoes and I would suggest not getting too caught up on the variety of tomatoes you use, but instead use what you have on hand or can find for sale.

Another great thing about this tomato pie is the fact that it does not require making a pie crust (which isn’t that hard but can be time-consuming on a weeknight). Just roll out the puff pastry into a pie dish (keep the parchment paper attached to the back). For the filling mix the ricotta and goat cheese, herbs and olive oil. Then spoon half of the ricotta mixture into the puff pastry, add a layer of sliced tomato, top with the remaining cheese mixture, another layer of sliced tomatoes.  Garnish with fresh basil leaves, drizzle with olive oil and pop it in the oven.

Serve it warm and enjoy the creamy rich perfection. Seriously I almost ate the whole thing myself, and my husband (who proclaims he doesn’t like goat cheese) love it too.

Finally, it’s too pretty not to make.

I mean seriously look at those sweet little roasted tomatoes and baked cheese. To make the crust even prettier you can brush it with egg wash (a fancy term for a scrambled raw egg) before baking. Either way, this little beauty makes a great dish to share with friends and is sure to look lovely on your Instagram feed. No one has to know that it only took ten minutes to put together.

Try it out this week and let me know what you think!