Tomato cobbler may sound strange, but there is nothing strange about fresh tomatoes cooked with onions and topped with garlic-cheddar biscuits.
I’ve mentioned before that pretty much the best thing about summer for me (besides summer break, duh) is late summer peaches and tomatoes. I’m clinging to the last month of summer as I pop grape tomatoes from my garden like candy and debate whether to fry my tomatoes while they’re still green or let them ripen and eat them dripping juice on a tomato and mayonnaise sandwich. These are tough choices, you guys.
I have been writing this blog for three years now and have been a pretty hardcore cooking addict for many more than that, so it’s kind of surprising even to me that I have never made a tomato pie. I’ve sure heard a lot about them and always thought that they sounded good. I was right. Tomato pie is delicious….but when I made Simply Recipes’ tomato pie I ended up with a delicious soupy mess. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on me (or was it won’t get fooled again? Get it? Haha.). Now, I’m not knocking Elise‘s recipe….I’m sure I could have worked harder and got more of the liquid out, but I decided to turn tomato pie on its head-literally-and make tomato cobbler instead.
My line of thinking was that if I put the tomatoes on the bottom that there would be no breadiness underneath them to get soggy in the juice. I was right! I also felt that the onions (put into the pie raw before baking) were still a little too crunchy, so for the cobbler I cooked them, then added half the tomatoes and cooked out most of the liquid while the other half of the tomatoes got a good salting and thorough draining on paper towels. Tomato cobbler = success. And anything topped with garlic cheddar biscuits (you could totally make this recipe on its own for something that pretty closely resembles those addictive Cheddar Bay biscuits that they serve at Red Lobster) is a hit on my list.
This is a fairly bready recipe, but I like to have enough bread to have some with every bite. If you wanted less, you could half the biscuit recipe, or you could double the quantities on the tomatoes to amp up the filling.
Either way, tomato cobbler with biscuit topping is pretty much a perfect meal!
Tell me your favorite way to cook with (or eat raw) summer tomatoes!
Mary
Yield: 4 main or 8 side dish servings
20 minPrep Time:
50 minCook Time:
1 hr, 10 Total Time:
Save RecipeIngredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (I used half white whole wheat)
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, divided
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
- 4 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
- ½ cup buttermilk
- 2 pounds tomatoes, quartered and seeded
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small or ¼ large Vidalia onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons basil, julienned
- 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- To make the topping: Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and garlic powder in a large mixing bowl. Cut 4 tablespoons of butter into chunks and use a pastry blender or your fingertips to work the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add the cheese then add buttermilk, mixing between additions, until the mixture holds together but is not “wet”. Place in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.
- Make the filling: Slice the seeded tomatoes. Place half the tomatoes on a paper-towel lined plate and salt. Leave to drain, occasionally pressing with more paper towels on top to get out as much moisture as possible. Place the olive oil into a medium (10-inch) pan over medium heat. Sauté the onion in the olive oil until translucent. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes that you didn’t salt. Cook and stir until most of liquid has cooked out, 10-15 minutes. Add the salted tomatoes, basil, vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste.
- Assemble the cobbler: Pour the tomato mixture into an 8-inch baking dish. Roll the topping out onto a floured surface to about a 1 ½ inch thickness. Cut using a biscuit cutter-this should make about nine biscuits. Top the tomato mixture with the biscuits.
- Bake the cobbler for 30 minutes. If the biscuits have not browned on top after 30 minutes, use the broiler to brown the top. Allow to sit for 5-10 minutes before serving.
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