A New Favorite

I decided to throw my hat into the blogging world. Mostly I did it because I love food, and after reading a lot of different food blogs, I wanted to do one of my own. The only rule for my blog is that every recipe will contain butter. I love butter - that's where the title for this blog comes from, Mantequilla means butter in Spanish. I think butter gets a bad rep. It adds such a great flavor. I also like that it's natural. So, on to my first recipe. Tomato Pie. Yum.

I had this for the first time a couple weeks ago at Mary Mac's Tea House in Atlanta. I promise you, you will love it. It is so flippin' good, it's not fair. Even the Bosnians liked it. It quickly became a new family favorite.

The recipe calls for canned tomatoes, which we used when making it, but I think in the summer I will try making it with fresh garden tomatoes. You can also use more Ritz crackers than the recipe calls for, but I stuck with just the 1 sleeve. Other than that, I wouldn't change anything from the original recipe.

Tomato Pie

(adapted ever-so-slightly from Mary Mac's Recipe)

Serves 6 - 8

1 large can diced tomatoes

1 sleeve Ritz crackers - crushed in food processor

1 medium onion
3/4 cups cheddar cheese - shredded
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese - grated
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil

butter

olive oil
salt
ground pepper

1. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9" pie dish. (You can double the recipe if you want, and then you would use a 9"x13" baking dish.)

2. Spread a third of the Ritz crackers on the bottom of the dish.

3. Slice the onion, and sautee in olive oil until tender. Salt & pepper to flavor.

4. Pour half of the can of tomatoes (including juice) over the crackers.

5. Layer half of the onions over the tomatoes.

6. Layer the other half of the tomatoes over the onions, then the other half of the onions on top of that.

7. Spread a third of the Ritz crackers on top of the tomato/onion layers.

8. In a small bowl, combine mayonnaise, cheeses and basil, then spread that on top of the Ritz crackers.

9. Top with the rest of the crackers.

10. Bake at 350° for 30 to 40 minutes, until crackers are golden brown.