I suspect you don’t usually think of ‘curry’ and ‘tomatoes’ together in the same dish. Me, either. But today’s featured recipe is an exception to that expectation. Roasted Curry Tomato Pie could be best described as an India Pizza-come-Tarte…
This one checks all the boxes: It’s full of healthy ingredients, it’s heavy on nutritionally-dense fresh produce, it packs a ton of bright, exotic flavour, and it gives us a jumping-off place to experiment with a whole host of other dishes. AND… It’s a perfect way to celebrate Tomato season!
Multi-dimensional
This multi-dimensional dish offers myriad possibilities for experimentation and evolutionary creat-ion… Which is a fancy way of saying, the idea behind the flavoured short crust can be ploughshared into many other creations, using different flavouring approaches to complement different savoury fillings. The Tomato-Curry combination can be applied to other tomato dishes that are begging for an update. The cheesy sauce/custard base could find uses in a whole host of other luxe dishes. And the Tamarind Onions may change the way you look at caramelized/grilled onions forever…
What you do…
This dish comes together in four parts. You make the crust, the filing, the roasted tomatoes and cara-melized onions separately, then put them all together and bake in a preheated 400 F oven until the filling is bubbling and the crust is golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes.
Let cool 10 minutes before slicing into wedges, like any other pie or tarte, to give the filling a chance to set…
No special culinary knowledge, skills or equipment are required for this dish, but you will find your-self applying a variety of techniques and ingredients. And it will require some significant prep time. Recipe contributor Sam Fore recommends you allow 50 minutes for prep, which includes overlapping time slots for prepping the cheese filling and the onions while the tomatoes roast.
Tips and hacks
DO use the best, ripest beefsteak or ‘slicing’ tomatoes you can get. If the tomatoes are even a little under-ripe, the dish will come out thin- and bitter-tasting.
I haven’t tried it this way, but I suspect you could use thick/Greek yogurt in place of the mayo if you prefer. That would make the dish even more ‘Indian’ in overall character.
Red onion is specified, but I suspect that’s at least partly for the colour. I’m going to try this dish using my fave sweet onions – Viadlias – to make the overall flavour complex a little more ‘swavoury’…
As for the Madras Curry powder and the other spicy ingredients, you get to control the heat level and ‘punch’ in the dish by using only as much as you prefer. I humbly take this opportunity to reiterate my own philosophy on spice: If it’s so hot it irritates your mouth (or worse), and/or you can’t taste the actual food underneath, it’s too spicy!
My take
As I said at the outset… What better way to celebrate Tomato Season? Which, in my part of the world, is coming on strong right now!
DO try this great summery dish soon…
~ Maggie J.