Barbara's Summer Tomato Pie

One of my stepmother's finest contributions to my dietary canon. If you make this pie with Jersey tomatoes in July or August, you'll know what I mean. (Yes, I'm from New Jersey, where we take tomatoes seriously.)

Summer Tomato Pie

1 pie crust, baked and cooled*

2-3 good big summer tomatoes, sliced
1/2 - 1 onion, sliced (sweet Maui or Vidalia onions are best)
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup grated cheddar cheese (add more if you enjoy melted cheese)
Salt and pepper
Dried herbs to taste

Layer thickly-sliced tomatoes in your baked pie crust. Use a lot, they shrink. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and your choice of dried herbs (Barbara uses dried basil and chives) over the tomatoes, then spread an onion, sliced into thin circles, over top of that.

Mix mayonnaise and grated cheese together in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Spread over the whole pie. Bake 30 minutes at 350 F. Serve warm.

* A storebought frozen pie crust works just fine, but if you don't have any in the freezer, make an

Easy-as-Pie Crust (recipe for 1 single-crust pie)

1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled butter
1/2 teaspoon kosher or coarse salt
3 tablespoons ice water

Combine flour and salt in mixing bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter until the clumps are the size of small peas. (Don't use your hands or the pastry will get heavy and gummy; you want the butter to stay cold.) Add ice water and stir in with a fork. Don't add extra water even if you think it needs it -- trust me, it doesn't.

Gather up dough into a ball, wrap in plastic, flatten into a rough disc shape and refrigerate for a half hour. When dough is cool and firm, flour your rolling pin and roll the disk out into a 12" circle. (I do this on a big flexible plastic cutting board, then invert the circle directly into my Pyrex pie plate.) Prick dough all over with a fork, then bake at 425 F for 15-18 minutes until golden brown. Cool before filling. Also great for quiches.