Savory Tomato Pie with Kale-Walnut Pesto

As promised, I've jumped away from the sweet plum pies (for now!) and made a savory pie. In this case, a tomato pie with kale pesto. It tasted as good as that sounds, and maybe even better.

I used the recipe found here, but altered it a bit by making a (double) pie crust myself (using Carolyn's method), and by adding salt to the pesto and salting/pressing the tomatoes to reduce their water content.

The pesto in this recipe is interesting, basically kale, toasted walnuts, and romano cheese, with some ricotta to make it more decadent. Pretty satisfying all around- very like basil besto, but also very unlike. But satisfying in many of the same ways. Not as bitter as I'd expected, either.

I also, as is my wont, doubled the amount of garlic recommended... and added a little extra mozzarella too. Since it was in a real pie crust, and in a pie pan, I pre-baked for 20 minutes (which was a little too long I think), then baked the filled pie for a good 45 minutes (not the 15-20 called for in the recipe). 

Here's what it looked like right before I put on the top crust:

And, here's what it looked like about a half-hour after it came out of the oven. (Waiting for it to cool was, as usual, too strenuous a test of willpower).

 As you can see, I'm still really not winning any style points for my ugly, ugly crusts. One of the challenges I want to take up soon is making very pretty crusts. Mostly I've been rushing through the assembly, and it shows (though this one had a very good texture, it just looks funny). Maybe the next pie will be lovely.