Bacon Ranch Tomato Pie

Make a Bacon Ranch Tomato Pie with the summer tomato harvest. Flaky pie crust, ranch cream cheese, BACON and roasted cherry tomatoes. Tasty, fresh and oh so EASY! And can you say gorgeous? I just made this a week ago, but preparing this post makes me want to make another again lickety-split! Yes, it has bacon, but only six slices in the whole pie. Yes, it has cream cheese, but its all organic with only whole milk and all natural cheese cultures.  Yes, it has a double crust, but…I can’t really justify that. It also has a whole lot of tomatoes to go towards your veggie quota, so that’s an acceptable trade off, right? Active working time is about 30-45 minutes. Waiting time is closer to two hours.

So this recipe is inspired a great deal by the Cherry Tomato Pie over at Better Homes and Gardens. The first time I made it a lot like their recipe, and while it was lovely, it really just tasted like a BLT, with a lot more steps. Don’t get me wrong, I love BLTs, but I change those up a bit too.  I hate mayonnaise so for the past decade, I’ve been putting Ranch dressing on my BLTs instead. So when BHG’s recipe got me thinking of BLTs, I knew what I had to do. So, I replaced the mayonnaise with greek yogurt and added a packet of dry ranch seasoning mix. I also eliminate the bacon grease sautéed onion and cut up all of the tomatoes to drain them really well to keep that flaky crust from getting soggy. Start your ovens!

The only thing not pictured here is the greek yogurt. I used it to prop up the bacon (oops)!

Preheat to 400 degrees F and allow your pie crusts to sit at room temperature for 20 minutes. Set out a silicone baking mat and dust with flour, along with your rolling pin. I’m not fortunate enough to have marble countertops, so I use this one: Silicone Pastry Mat (affiliate link). It also has handy dandy measurements so I know what size and shape my pastry will turn out.

Lay out your crusts, one on top of the other, with NO flour in between the two crusts. Flour between the layers would prevent them from sticking together, which we don’t want. Roll lightly to press crusts together and increase overall size to  a 12 inch round.  The measurements on that silicone mat are really handy in these situations.

Next, wrap the crust around your rolling pin for protection and transfer it to your buttered Deep Pie Dish (affiliate link), then unwrap over dish. Gently press down the crust in the center and sides, then pierce all over bottom with fork.

Cover it with a double layer of foil and and put in oven for ten minutes. Then remove the foil and cook until just brown or another five minutes. That is the last of the “hard” part. You could feasibly buy a frozen ready made crust, but those don’t taste great. The rest is mostly chop, mix, dump, bake. :)

While its baking, cook off your BACON! The original recipe says to “cook until just done but not crisp”. This is an oxymoron to me as bacon is not done until crisp. I realize this is a subject still open for debate. Just cook to your own desired doneness. And don’t be worried about under-cooking to allow for additional baking time, the moisture of the tomatoes keep that from happening. BACON {MMMM} One more thing, we cut our bacon in half because it just makes it easier to flip and makes us feel like there is more bacon. It’s all about perception sometimes.

Now, your crust is probably still baking, so get to chopping your tomatoes. The original recipe calls for chopping about half, and leaving the rest whole. I think that just leads to a bunch of unnecessary extra moisture when they burst in the oven. Extra moisture= soggy crust. No thank you. Chop them all up, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with half the ranch dressing packet. Stir to coat evenly and place seasoned tomatoes in a colander to drain. The salt in the seasoning helps facilitate the draining process.

Around this time, the crust might be ready. If it is done before you finished chopping tomatoes, that’s okay. Pull it out, evenly sprinkle crust bottom with 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese. This will melt a little and help build a barrier from soggy crust. Line sides with half the bacon (again the shorter pieces help). Allow to cool slightly. Drop oven temperature to 375 F. Continue cutting tomatoes if need be.

Now lets make the cream cheese base. Beat together room temperature cream cheese, greek yogurt, egg yolk, lemon peel, remaining parmesan and ranch seasoning mix. Spread evenly over bottom of crust (more soggy-proofing).

Remember those draining tomatoes? I bet you’ll be surprised by how much moisture has come out of those. They smell pretty good too, as evidenced by Dottie and Dallas. Spread drained tomatoes evenly over pie and weave in remaining pieces of bacon. Gosh it’s pretty even before baking.

Bake for another 35 minutes or until tomatoes start to shrivel. Cover your crust edges with foil if they start to get too brown before done baking. Pull it out and now for the hardest part: Wait for 60 whole minutes before attempting to cut or eat. It smells divine, so if you need to go do something productive like fold laundry or scrub the bathroom, good luck not getting distracted.

You know all that hard work eliminating extra moisture? That means that whatever you don’t eat now, refrigerates beautifully and tastes even better tomorrow. Just make sure it is completely cool and cover in saran wrap before storing in fridge. If there is the tiniest bit of warmth, moisture will condense on the plastic wrap and sogify your crust. I actually think it tastes better cold, straight out of the fridge.

My husband and I gobbled this up over two nights. No judgments, please. So, are you going to make it? Let me know! Ingredients and directions below.

 Ingredients:

• 6 strips bacon
• 2 refrigerated pie crusts
• 2/3 cup shredded parmesan (not grated), separated
• 4 cups cherry tomatoes (I mixed red and yellow)
• 1 Tbs olive oil
• 1 packet dry ranch seasoning mix, separated
• 1 8 oz pkg cream cheese
• 1/4 cup greek yogurt
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp shredded lemon peel

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Cook bacon to desired doneness. Transfer to paper towel; drain and set aside.
2. Let piecrust stand at room temperature for 20 minutes. On Floured surface, stack the two piecrusts. Roll to press together until a 12-inch diameter. Wrap pastry around a rolling pin; unroll pastry into a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate.  Gently press pastry into the bottom of pie plate. Sides will not lay flat against pie plate. Prick bottom of pastry.
3. Line pastry with a double thickness of foil; bake 10 minutes. Remove foil; bake 5 minutes more. Remove, and reduce heat to 375 degrees F. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the parmesan over the piecrust. Place half the bacon slices around the edge of the crust. Set aside.
4. Halve all the cherry tomatoes. Place cut tomatoes in a large mixing bowl. Add olive oil and half of the dry ranch seasoning mix. Stir to combine.
5. In a separate bowl beat together cream cheese, greek yogurt, egg yolk,  lemon peel, and remaining Parmesan and dry ranch seasoning mix.
6. Spoon cream cheese mixture into piecrust.Top with tomato mixture. Weave the remaining bacon slices among the tomatoes. Gently press tomatoes and bacon into the cream cheese mixture.
7. Bake pie until tomatoes just begin to shrivel, about 35 minutes. (Loosely cover pie with foil if edges brown too quickly.) Let stand 60 minutes before cutting or eating. Let leftovers cool completely before covering with saran wrap and refrigerating.

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