Creamy Tomato Herb & Wine Cast Iron Skillet Pie

My three D’Antoni boys were born into a basketball playing family!  Their dad was an All-American basketball player at Marshall University, and coached nationally recognized high school teams in his career.  Their uncle played at Marshall, too, and then went on to play professionally in Italy, and coach Italian basketball teams for 20+ years.

Currently,  my boys’ Uncle Mike and their Dad are the head and assistant coaches respectively of the New York Knicks.  While the boys are all grown adults now, they still have basketball in their DNA!  Maybe now you understand what I mean by a basketball family!  Basketball was always a fun thing for my kids, but it was also mighty competitive around our house!  This great sport provided my boys access to fabulous college educations at Division I colleges.  The boys, for whatever reason, weren’t really into ‘pies’ so in order to make pies I had to make sure they had some link to their favorite foods—pasta and pizza!  There were many deep dish Bolognese pies made and devoured before game time!  The Creamy Tomato Herb & Wine Cast Iron Skillet Pie is another variation of combining the Italian flavors of tomatoes, herbs, cheeses and now wine all cooked in our Southern Appalachia West Virginia heritage cast iron skillet! Let’s share this with ‘Weekend Potluck #26′…swing by for some great recipes from six excellent foodies online!

 

Serves:   6-8

PreHeat  oven to 350

 

What you need:

1 store-bought roll out refrigerated pie crust (2 pieces for bottom and top)

8 medium sized fresh tomatoes diced in medium-size pieces

4 tbl butter

¼ cup coarsely chopped fresh garlic

1 cup white wine (optional…you can substitute chicken broth)

2 tbl flour

1 cup heavy cream

½ cup whipped cream cheese

1 cup freshly grated cheese (I used asiago.)

4 oz hot pepper cheese cut into chunks

½ cup freshly chopped basil

1/3 cup freshly chopped Italian parsley

Kosher salt/Pepper to taste

 

 

What you do:

1.  Spray bottom of a 10” cast iron skillet with cooking spray.   Place one of the pie crusts in the bottom and shape up the sides.  It does not have to be perfect.  This is a rustic pie.
2. Place chopped tomatoes on a double layer of paper towels to allow some of water to come out.  Place another double layer of paper towels on top and gently press so paper towels absorb some of the water.  Allow to sit while you make cheese filling sauce.
3. Meanwhile in a medium skillet over medium heat, melt butter, add garlic and sauté until tender and translucent.  Add white wine slowly to get a sizzle.  Allow to sizzle/simmer about 7 minutes boiling off the alcohol.  Sift in flour while stirring.   Mixture will thicken.  Reduce heat to low and add heavy cream, whipped cream cheese, grated cheese and hot pepper cheese.  Stir and blend melting in all the cheeses.  Finally, add herbs and blend.  Add salt and pepper to taste.
4. Place chopped tomatoes into skillet with bottom pie crust layer.  Pour cheese cause on top.  Place top crust layer and pinch around pie roughly joining the two pie crust layers.  Make a small cross cut in the middle to allow steam to escape.
5. Place in oven and bake for approximately 30 minutes.  Keep an eye on the pie and if the top crust is browning too much, cover
   loosely with a piece of foil.  Remove pie,  place on cooling rack and allow to rest about 20+ minutes before serving.

 

 

© 2011 Alice D’Antoni Phillips What’s for Dinner? Ally’s Kitchen