Whether or not you have your own garden bursting with ripe tomatoes, the vegetable is plentiful this time of year! Take advantage of the bounty of fresh, seasonal tomatoes with this tomato hand-pie recipe. For how elegantly delicious the result is, the process is incredibly easy!
Ingredients
- 1 14-oz. package frozen all-butter puff pastry (or, make your own!)
- 2 large garlic cloves
- 3-4 thyme sprigs
- 2 large sprigs marjoram or oregano
- 3 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
- 1-pint cherry tomatoes
- 1 1/4 tsp. Diamond Crystal kosher salt or 3/4 tsp. Morton kosher salt (yes, there is a difference!), divided
- 1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper, divided
- 6 oz. Gruyére, shredded
- 1/3 cup crème fraîche
- 1/8 tsp. freshly ground nutmeg (optional)
- 1 large egg
- All-purpose flour
Tomato Pie Variations
As written, this recipe from Bon Appetit will make very savory pies with a distinctly French flavor profile, but there are lots of ways you could customize these with a few ingredient tweaks. If you’re looking for more of a homemade hot pocket, use low-moisture mozzarella, oregano, basil, and your favorite salami or pepperoni. A grilled-cheese-tomato-soup flavor can be achieved by using extra-sharp cheddar, thyme, and dill. If you’re a big fan of the super-trendy TikTok Pasta, swap the Gruyére for feta cheese and change out the herbs for a diced shallot for a similar flavor experience.
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Making Your Own Puff Pastry
Though the recipe is written using pre-made puff pastry sheets for weeknight convenience, if you’re looking to give yourself an extra culinary challenge on the weekend or impress your friends with your pastry skills, make your own puff pastry! There are two methods you can use and both yield delicious, buttery, flaky results: rough-puff and traditional. With a rough-puff method, small bits of cold butter (usually grated) are folded into the dough just a few times and the whole dough-making process only takes about 15 minutes. In the traditional method, sticks of butter are pounded into a square and wrapped in the dough. Then, the dough is folded several times, chilling in between each fold. It’s a longer process than rough-puff, but it will be worth it if you want to ever build on that skill to make croissants.
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