I don't know about you, but sometimes I get a little ambitious in deciding how many tomatoes I'll use in any given week. This is especially true during the summer when tomatoes look so amazing and promise such deliciousness. When I "overbuy," I love to use my excess lovelies to put together a quick and easy pie. This dish is equally tasty hot or cold, so feel free to bake and nosh on it for a couple of days. Here's what you'll need:

One pastry round
4-6 plum/Roma tomatoes
2 cups grated Swiss or mozzarella cheese (or a mix of both!)
1/3 cup shredded fresh basil
Olive oil
Freshly ground pepper

Start by slicing the tomatoes 1/4" thick and sprinkling them with salt. This ensures that the tomatoes "sweat" out much of their moisture and don't make the pie watery. After 20-30 minutes, use a paper to dab off the moisture.Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees. Make sure that the pie crust is at room temperature. Roll out the dough onto an ungreased tart or quiche pan.

Bake the crust for 10 minutes (CHECK) until lightly golden. If there are any parts of the shell that puff up, use a wooden spoon to press the crust down. Reduce the oven to 375 degrees.

Allow the shell to cool, then fill with the cheese.Top the cheese with the tomatoes in a circular, overlapping fashion.Brush the tomatoes with high quality olive oil.Top the pie with the basil and ground pepper.Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes if serving hot. However, I like this dish just as well cold, so feel free to make ahead and serve cold.

I'm hungry just reliving this recipe! I hope you enjoy it as well.

Tomato Tart