Cheese Onion & Tomato Pie

Mains, Sides, Vegetarian & Vegan, Breakfast & Brunch, Parties & Potlucks
This is my mom’s Cheese, Onion & Tomato Pie based on the Savory Cheese and Onion Pie in “The Vegetarian Epicure” by Anna Thomas published in 1972. All my life, we’ve called it Cheese, Onion & Tomato Pie, but after I reached out to Anna Thomas and asked permission to publish this recipe, I looked it up and see that she has another recipe called Cheese & Tomato Pie in her book, The Vegetarian Epicure, Book Two. This is not that recipe although that one looks good too. My mom uses a frozen 9” pie crust for the pie, but the original recipe calls for a 10” shortcrust pastry. My mom adds Parmesan cheese to the recipe as well.
Cheese Onion & Tomato Pie

Ingredients

  • 3 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated
  • 10 ounces cheese: half Gruyere and half Swiss, grated and combined
  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 2 large onions, sliced
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 1 teaspoon fresh basil, chopped
  • 2 large ripe, firm tomatoes, sliced
  • 2 eggs
  • 3/4 cup heavy cream

Directions

  1. Defrost the pie crust or use a homemade crust.
  2. Preheat the oven to 350 °.
  3. Press the Parmesan cheese into the crust.
  4. Grate all the cheese and toss with the flour.
  5. Melt butter in a large skillet and sauté the onions, very gently in the butter until they begin to turn golden, about a half hour. Spread about 1/3 of the Gruyere-Swiss cheese over the bottom of a pie dish. Then spread the onions over it.
  6. In the butter that is left in the pan, heat the tomato slices with the chopped basil for a minute or two. Arrange the tomato slices over the onions, then cover them with the remaining cheese.
  7. Beat the eggs with the cream. Add salt and pepper and pour over the cheese.
  8. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes
Total time:
Yield: 6 servings

Notes

We usually serve this as a side dish for Thanksgiving so we serve smaller portions. The original recipe says it’s six servings.