What do you do when the first hard frost hits before all your tomatoes are ripe? Make green tomato pie¹, of course!

Ingredients

• 4 cups peeled, sliced tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice or cider vinegar
• 1 1/4 cups sugar, white or brown
• 4 to 6 tablespoons flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Nutmeg or ginger to taste (optional)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• Pastry for a double-crust 9-inch pie

The tomatoes should be of mature size, those that would, in ordinary growing conditions, be about a week from turning very ripe. Very green small tomatoes will have an acrid taste.

Method

Scald the tomatoes with boiling water, then peel them and remove the cores. Slice them 1/4 inch thick into a mixing bowl. Sprinkle with the lemon juice or vinegar. Combine the sugar, flour, salt, and spices, and fold into the tomato slices. Line a pie pan with pastry and trim the edge. Turn the tomatoes into the pastry and dot the top with butter. Moisten the edge of the bottom crust, top with pastry, trim the edge, and crimp. Cut steam vents in the top. Bake at 450°F for 15 minutes, reduce heat to 350°F and then bake for a further 25 to 30 minutes. Cool on a rack.

The result is a pie that doesn't taste at all like tomatoes, but more like a good apple pie. Because the tomatoes aren't ripe, the texture is good and firm, and the sugar offsets their tartness nicely. Give it a try if you're a tomato-raiser.