Pie

All of our meals look the same these days. Tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, onions, and basil. Oh, and sometimes chard. Then they're either combined with quinoa, rice, noodles, broth, or, as they were last night, pie. Mmmm! The lighting is not spectacular in these pictures, sorry. But the recipe is great. Here it is. Don't be alarmed by the long list of ingredients, it's really not hard to make. Also, one of my favorite things to do for a picnic is to make these into individual, hand-held pies. Just spread filling on small circles of dough, fold them in half, pinch the edges, and bake. Yum.

Cherry Tomato, Cheese, and Zucchini Pie

Crust:
2 1/4 c. flour
½ c. grated parmesan cheese
pinch of sugar
1 t. coarse salt
3/4 c. cold butter
1 egg yolk
1/4 to ½ c. ice water

Combine flour, cheese, sugar, and salt in bowl. Cut in butter until mixture makes coarse crumbs. Add egg yolk. Drizzle in water until dough just comes together. (I usually use the whole 1/2 c., or even a tiny bit more.) Form a ball. Wrap in plastic. Refrigerate till cold, about 30 minutes. (While it is in the fridge, make the filling.)

Filling:
Chop up a bunch of vegetables (onion, zucchini, squash) and saute them in olive oil until golden brown. Sprinkle generously with coarse salt. Turn off the heat and stir in two big handfuls of cherry tomatoes. I cut them in half first. Stir in a heaping 1/4 cup flour, ½ c. grated parmesan cheese (high-quality, naturally), 1 T. sugar, and as much fresh basil as you like. Stir it all together and add more salt and pepper as needed.

Roll out the dough into a big circle, much bigger than your pie pan. Then put it in the pie pan, top with the filling, and cut 7 slits evenly spaced around the pie crust. Fold the flaps over so they become the top crust (as shown above). To make it browner you can brush the crust with a beaten egg before baking. Bake at 375 for 45 min. or until golden brown.