Recipe: Green Tomato Pie

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PIE-A-DAY #17

I had a fun assignment this week.  Make Adrienne Kane’s Green Tomato Pie from her book United States of Pie.  We wanted to run the recipe during Pie-a-Day and she didn’t have a photograph of the pie.  I’ve made pie with ripe tomatoes and French tomato tarts.  I’ve also made fried green tomatoes.  But I had never made a Green Tomato Pie.  New experiences are always welcome in service of pie mastery.

The tomatoes came from the Wednesday Santa Monica Farmer’s Market.  They were green, very green.  And so hard you could actually do damage if you threw one at somebody.  I followed Adrienne’s recipe exactly.  Well, almost.  When we had our conversation for the show Adrienne talked about using those end of season tomatoes when there are still tomatoes on the vine but weather is getting colder and you know they’re not going to fully ripen.  So maybe they’re green going to pink.  Mine were super green, meaning unripe.  She called for 3/4 cup of sugar in the recipe but when I tasted the tomatoes they were so acid that I decided to go with a full cup of sugar.  She also gives the instruction to leave behind any bits of pulp or seeds left on the counter after slicing.  Well, these tomatoes were so unripe that they were quite solid and the seed cavities were super immature.  That meant that I couldn’t easily discard any pulp or seeds.  I quite rightly as it turned out expected that they would give off a prodigious amount of juice.  So I added a bit more cornstarch, 4 1/2 tablespoons instead of 3.

The aroma while the pie was baking was as if an apple pie was in the oven.  And yet, not quite apple pie when you put a forkful in your mouth.  Almost though, surprisingly close.

Keep reading for the recipe, and tune in to Good Food this Saturday for my interview with Adrienne. Click here to enter YOUR delicious pie (or pies) in the 4th Annual Good Food Pie Contest on Saturday, September 8th at LACMA.