Tomato Ricotta Pie

Summer is the best for being up-to-your-eyeballs in fresh tomatoes. All our tomato plants are doing really well this year. Hallelujah. The cherry tomatoes seem to produce a handful per day and the larger tomatoes thankfully ripen just a few at a time. My rents have a bumper crop of cukes and tomatoes which we’ve “helped” to consume.

Sometimes on an ‘anything goes’ night our mystery ingredient is…surprise, tomatoes. I had a few large ones at the same time so I wanted to plan something that would really highlight tomatoes. I adapted a Cooking Light Tomato Ricotta Pie which was more about the shredded cheese and Martha Stewart’s Tomato Ricotta Tart which uses breadcrumbs for the base/crust.

Three Bite Rule - Tomato Ricotta Pie

Ingredients:

1 pie crust, thawed (or made from scratch)
3 tomatoes, sliced
1 cup whole-milk ricotta
2 eggs
½ cup grated parmesan
¼ cup light alfredo sauce (optional)
1 tsp chopped garlic
salt & pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Gently unroll pie crust into a pie dish sprayed with non-stick spray, poking a few holes into the crust with a fork.
Bake for 10 minutes.
While crust is pre-baking, whisk together ricotta, eggs, parmesan, alfredo sauce, garlic, salt and pepper.
Three Bite Rule - Tomato Ricotta Pie
Remove crust from oven and pour the cheese mix.
Lay the tomatoes over the top slightly overlapping.
Three Bite Rule - Tomato Ricotta Pie
Sprinkle with extra sea salt or fleur de sel.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Three Bite Rule - Tomato Ricotta Pie
Optional: broil for the last 3 minutes to give the tomatoes more color.
Let sit for at least 5 minutes before slicing.
Three Bite Rule - Tomato Ricotta Pie

I liked that this was light but filling. It was kind of along the lines of quiche, but less eggy. I am pretty obsessed with ricotta so I enjoyed this. It could easily pretend to be brunch food too. I liked the leftovers too.

I didn’t happen to have any fresh basil but a little bit of that would be good. I absolutely don’t think this would have been the same with grocery store tomatoes. Quick! Find a farmer’s market near you!

Maybe I’ll try the breadcrumb as crust idea for a zucchini pie next.

Cost Breakdown:
crust: $1.84
tomatoes: free! (or about $2 at a farmer’s market)
ricotta: $2.19
eggs: $0.32
alfredo sauce: (half of a jar) $1.34
parmesan cheese: $1.19
total: $6.69 (serves 4 as a meal ($1.67 per person), or 6 as a meal/brunch accompaniment ($1.11 per person)

Can’t beat that price per person!

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